Knightmares
by Blackfan Diamond
Summary: After a few weeks of dealing with Sakura waking up in the middle of the night frightened because of nightmares, Sasuke decides that it is past time he does something about the matter. After all, he is Uchiha Sasuke! Dealing with a girl's fears shouldn't be so hard... Right?
1. Prologue

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 _KNIGHTMARES_

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PROLOGUE

''Sakura'' he called again, one hand holding her face ''wake up''.

The woman sleeping next to him moved in bed violently, her eyes shut tight as she struggled to fight invisible enemies in front of her.

''It's alright, wake up'' he insisted, this time using both his hands to hold her arms, trying to prevent her from hurting herself.

Suddenly, her eyes flung open and she stared at the face in front of her with wide eyes.

''Sasuke-…kun?''

The dark-haired shinobi sat in bed and brought her closer to him, pressing her head against his chest.

''It was just a nightmare, you're safe'' he reassured her, feeling her heart beat fast in her small chest as she slowly embraced him.

Silently, she held him tighter and tried her best to keep the tears from falling. She didn't want to cry in front of him, not again.

''You've been having nightmares quite often, haven't you?'' he asked after a while, putting a small distance between them so he could see her face, only visible because of the moonlight that entered through the window – Sakura insisted on sleeping with the curtains open, she felt completely frightened of being in a pitch black room.

He felt her nodding quietly and sighed, gently caressing her hair as he calmly laid her back down in bed and brought her closer again, wanting her to feel safe in his arms, wishing he could take away whatever it was that was haunting her so much during her sleep. He felt powerless not being able to protect her from whatever was causing her harm in her dreams.

And Sasuke hated to feel powerless.

Soon, he felt her chakra fall silent and her breath become regular, telling him that she had fallen asleep again. But he didn't feel like sleeping anymore. He watched her the whole night, lost in thoughts about what could it be that was tormenting her so much.

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''Well, well, now this is a face I don't see here often'' Ino commented when she heard the shop's doorbell ring and turned to glance at the dark-haired shinobi walking slowly in her direction.

''Ino'' he greeted.

''What can I do for you, Sasuke-kun?''

He looked away from her and scanned the flowers around them, as if suddenly they seemed very important to him, then he finally sighed and decided to blurt it out.

''It's about Sakura, I need to know something. Being her best friend, you are probably the one who knows her best'' he admitted, turning his glance back at the blonde in front of him ''I need your help''.

''I'm not about to tell you the things she confides to me, if that's what you're expecting'' she looked at him with suspicious eyes, crossing her arms in front of her chest.

''I'm worried about her'' he added, starting to feel rather irritated: he didn't want this conversation to last longer than the necessary, he already felt uncomfortable enough about the whole situation ''she's been having nightmares quite often and she won't tell me what's going on''

''I take that you've asked her about them to investigate, then''

He furrowed his brows.

''I knew you wouldn't have'' Ino giggled ''well, Sakura has indeed been having terrible nightmares since 8 years ago, more or less'' she brought a finger to her mouth as if thinking hard ''or at least that's when she first started to tell me about them anyway''.

Sasuke tried his best to conceal how much that information struck him. 8 years ago was the year when he left the village, and he suspected that the two events were somehow related.

''And they've never stopped?'' he inquired, wondering why the nightmares didn't go away once he returned, if his departure really was what caused them to start in the first place.

Ino made a face.

''Well, they come and go, but I don't recall them ever stopping'' she replied, then added after a second ''well, they did become less often when she was working hard at the hospital. She felt so tired that she didn't even dream about anything, so the nightmares couldn't torment her. But since you returned she's been working much less so she can help you readapt and all of that, maybe this is what caused her nightmares to return'' she concluded, nodding to herself.

Sasuke considered her words for a second.

''How do I make them stop?'' he asked finally, the determined look on his face making the blonde's smile falter for a second. She only then realized how much this situation meant to him and how sincere his words truly were when he said he was worried about her friend and wanted to help somehow.

''Pff it's not that easy!'' she moved her hand in front of her face a few times as if dismissing a stupid idea that lingered between them ''I've read a couple books about dreams and it's not like we can actually control what we dream, she's not having nightmares out of choice''.

''How?'' he pressed, his expression starting to harden.

Ino sighed and started to comb her hair with her fingers slowly.

''Well, if she has nightmares about something, it must be because it scares her or makes her uneasy. I suppose the best way to make her nightmares stop is to help her face her fears, so when she dreams about those things again they won't frighten her anymore'' she wasn't sure if Sakura would open up to Sasuke about her fears, especially since some of them involved him, but well, he wanted a quick answer, didn't he? So she gave him the answer he needed, even though she doubted _Sasuke Uchiha_ would take the time to have a conversation about fears with anyone, even with the person he loved the most.

Sasuke considered her words for a moment and twisted his lips, imagining how troublesome and awkward it would feel to have that kind of conversation with Sakura. But he would find a way, for Sakura's sake.

With a simple ''Hn'' he turned his back to the blond shinobi and started to walk away.

'' _You're welcome!''_ she ironized, leaning on a counter and staring at his back as he walked away.

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''How was your day?'' she asked, staring at him deeply in the eyes.

He stopped caressing her back to brush her hair away from her face, his fingers playing with the locks.

''Training, putting up with Dobe… The usual'' he replied simply, and she giggled, bringing a hand to her mouth to hide the wide smile on her face. She loved moments like this. ''What about yours?''

''It was good'' she rested her head on his chest ''not too many patients, everyone is being extra careful not to get hurt since Tsunade-sama got enraged with those 'careless workers' who showed up last week'' she felt him smiling above her ''and the patients I've been seeing are getting better, I have high hopes that they will be able to go home soon to spend the New Year with their families''.

''Always so caring, aren't you?'' he kissed her hair and closed his eyes, attentive only to the sound of her breathing and the warmth that came from her small body. She didn't reply. Instead, she moved closer to him and closed her eyes, listening to his heartbeat as she fell asleep.

Sasuke waited until her chakra signature fell quiet to make sure she was sound asleep. Then, slowly, he raised his body to look at her calm and peaceful face, bringing one hand gently to the top of her head. His eyes started to become the color of fresh blood as he activated his kekkei genkai.

Then everything went dark.

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Hey, everyoneeeee! So here I come again with a new story and this time it's not a comedy (AAAAAA)! XD

I've posted some stories that were lighter here before (my favorite one is Evening Talks, even though I think that's the least popular one hahaha) and I decided to challenge myself by writing something that is a little more dramatic hehehehe So I came up with Knightmares :D

I hope so so so much that you guys enjoy this! I've been trying my best to write this one, but sometimes my motivation to write gets so low ): I'll do my best to bring more chapters soon, though, I promise! o7

Would you guys please let me know what you think about this new story with a review? I would love it so much!

Hope to see you guys around!

Many kisses!

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Blackfan Diamond


	2. The Dream World

CHAPTER 1: THE DREAM WORLD

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When Sasuke opened his eyes again, he found himself in a place that was both familiar and strange at the same time.

The buildings were the same as the ones he grew up watching, the same trees danced across the streets and familiar faces - although none of them were people he had ever spoken too - were visible in the distance. Yet, it felt to him as if his vision was somehow blurred: everything seemed like it was moving slowly and constantly, and the whole environment around him was looking somehow a mix of blue and purple. It felt like he had been thrown into the middle of the ocean, where everything was blurred and blue-ish, but still, he felt solid ground under his feet and he moved freely around. Everything seemed oddly silent too, and he noticed that the people in the distance weren't moving: they were standing still, as if paralyzed.

''What on Earth is all of this?'' he asked himself aloud, walking around with short steps. He kept looking at the surroundings and observing what really was like that nowadays and what seemed like a projection of something that once was. The Hokage rock, for example, showed only four faces.

He stopped when he realized there was someone standing in front of him.

''Now look what we have here'' he said to himself with a smile on the corner of his mouth, lowering his body to look at the young girl in front of him in the eyes ''I don't remember Sakura looking like this when she was younger'' he commented.

''Did you ever really bother to _look_ at me back then, Sasuke-kun?'' she replied with a displeased face.

Sasuke took a step back and looked at the young girl in shock. Glancing around, he noticed that all the other people were still frozen, none had moved a single inch. Yet the girl in front of him was not only moving, but was also talking to him and making a very upset face.

''How can you move when all the others can't?'' he inquired, raising an eyebrow.

''That's simple, I'm not like the others'' she gave him a smug smile.

Sasuke rolled his eyes.

She shrugged.

''Well, I gave you your answer'' she turned her back to him and started to walk away.

For a moment, Sasuke considered just continuing his task on his own. It's not like a child would be able to help him anyway. Especially a younger version of _Sakura_ , who he recalled having been a very annoying kid. But what was he going to do there? Walk around? Try to figure things out by himself? Well, he _is_ Sasuke Uchiha, of course he would manage to figure it all out by himself eventually. But maybe he could take the shorter route and ask this little Sakura for help and get this done quickly. Not that he needed any help, of course, he was an Uchiha after all! It was all a matter of making things faster and smoother.

Having convinced his Uchiha Pride that it would do him no harm to ask her for advice, he cleared his throat and said:

''What is this place? And why are you different from the others?''

She turned to him with a mocking smile, bending on a street light.

''Oh, Mr. Uchiha is actually _talking to me_ , is it?''

He rolled his eyes and turned to the side.

''Well, I think your first question is very stupid given you are the one who came here by choice, but I'll answer you anyway'' she opened her arms widely and threw her head back, exclaiming proudly: ''this is Sakura's Dream World!''

Sasuke looked around again. It was as he had expected, though he wasn't sure at first if this was really her dream or if his attempt had failed and _he_ had fallen asleep and was dreaming all of that. All those thoughts about dreams were making him confused.

''Isn't there normally more, how can I say it, _action_ in dreams?'' he raised an eyebrow ''everyone is still, everything is quiet and blue''

Green eyes met his dark ones.

''This is because the dreams haven't started yet'' she explained simply. Noticing the confused look on his face, she added ''there are many stages of sleep, and it takes a while until you get to the part where you actually _dream_ about something, and we didn't get there yet''.

''So we must wait until Sakura's in deep sleep and starts dreaming?''

She nodded.

''It shouldn't take long now'' she looked around and twisted her nose ''but we've lived this one dream a few times already, it's never a very pleasant one'' she sighed and sat on the floor.

Sasuke moved closer to her and sat by her side.

''You didn't tell me who _you_ are''.

''I'm Sakura of course'' she seemed annoyed by his question.

''No.'' he replied, lowering himself to stare at her big green eyes ''Sakura is asleep, next to me, in her apartment. _Who are you?_ '''

She rolled her eyes.

''I'm Sakura, I told you! Stop being so annoying!''

This time he decided against pressing the matter. It was pointless arguing with a young girl anyway.

''You know why I'm here, are you going to help me?'' he asked.

She closed her eyes and pretended to think hard, lines forming on her forehead.

''I think chances are that you end up making things even worse, so I think maybe you should just leave and let us be!'' she retorted, turning to the side in a childish way.

''I'm here to _help_ , not to make things worse'' he rolled his eyes ''how worse can things get, anyway? Sakura's been waking up from nightmares quite often already''.

She frowned and looked at him incredulously.

''How simple do you think my mind is? You think you can just show up in here and start meddling with things and nothing bad can happen?''

Sasuke stood silent, absorbing her words. In all honesty, yes, that's what he had thought.

''Well, Mr. Oblivious, things don't work quite that way'' she sighed and turned to face him ''look, I know you want to help, but can't you try to behave like a normal person and help by simply _talking_ to me? Entering my mind will not solve the problem and it might even make things worse!''

''How can things get worse?'' Sasuke raised an eyebrow ''you aren't even conscious right now, you won't remember any of this in the morning'' he shrugged and looked away from her ''and you're not even the real Sakura, you can't speak for her''.

The young Sakura huffed in frustration and stood, hitting her feet hard on the floor in annoyance.

''If you end up messing up with my memories and changing who I am, I won't ever forgive you!'' she screamed and crossed her arms, fury all over her small face.

This time Sasuke gave her his full attention.

''What do you mean?''

''Exactly what I said!''

He grabbed both her arms and forced her to face him, his expression hardened now.

''Answer me.''

For a second, the young Sakura felt frightened by the look on his face. He was truly concerned, and very upset, she could tell. Maybe he really did want to help, after all. Besides, she thought, they were running out of time.

''Fine… But you must cooperate and don't ruin everything!'' she sighed, and he loosened his grip on her arms, but didn't release her ''You asked me why I am the only one who can move and speak, while all the rest can't'' he nodded ''that's because I'm Sakura's personification in the Dream World, I'm her image in here.''

Sasuke raised an eyebrow. If possible, he was even more confused than before.

''In dreams, don't we either see ourselves in first person or in third person?'' he agreed, and she continued ''well, I'm her in her dreams. Whenever she dreams about something in first person, she is seeing through my eyes, and when she's dreaming in third person, she sees _me_ moving around. Like everyone else, Sakura has no control over her dreams, so her subconscious creates a world and I'm to live in it until she wakes up, I'm her subconscious' creation. I'm only not present when she is dreaming about things that don't involve herself or when she's just reliving memories''.

''So, in reality, the things she dreams about depend on what _you_ do'' he concluded.

The young Sakura thought for a second and then agreed.

''Yeah, they do I guess. I am Sakura, in a way, so I try to do things like she would. Although her subconscious normally takes control over me and makes me do things I wouldn't if I were to choose, so it's not all on me, otherwise I would definitely make every dream be the coolest thing ever!'' she proclaimed.

''Why are you a child though? Sakura's already 21'' he questioned.

She retreated a bit and Sasuke realized that he had struck a nerve. Quickly, he changed the subject:

''What are the bad consequences of me being here that you mentioned?''

She let her head fall to one side, biting her lower lip.

''Well, in dreams it's when the memories we've formed throughout the day are strengthened. Let's think of it like boxes: all of them are opened during our sleep and new memories are organized in the right places, while old memories are reorganized, so they are put where they fit best. Memories are fragile things, and they are completely exposed during sleep, anything that goes wrong can damage them'' she looked deep into his eyes with a serious expression ''and as you can probably imagine, once damaged the memories cannot easily be fixed''

Sasuke raised an eyebrow.

''I say something so precious shouldn't be exposed like this''

''I say no one from outside should be in here to offer them any threat in the first place!'' she gave him a fierce look.

''Touché'' he agreed. A smile was formed on the corner of his mouth for a second, but it soon disappeared ''so how can I avoid causing any damage?''

Annoyed green eyes met red iris.

''Do I look like I know? You're the very first person to come in here!''

He snorted and looked away.

Suddenly, lights of different colors started to appear in the blurred sky, painting it like Northern Lights with colors Sasuke didn't even know existed. If he squinted and concentrated, he could see that figures were moving in each of the lights, as if each of them was playing a movie of its own. Two of them seemed much brighter than the rest and appeared to be lower in the sky, as if, had they a ladder close-by, they would be able to reach them.

''What are those?'' he inquired, not taking his eyes away from the brightest ones, finding some of the images there quite familiar.

''Those are the memories, changing place in the brain'' the girl looked up ''and the brightest ones are the ones that are active right now'' Sasuke glanced at her ''they will define the first dream''.

He didn't have time to make any comments before suddenly the wind blew on his face so wildly that, were him a different person, he would've lost his balance.

''It's started'' the pink-haired young girl announced, just before her eyes glowed bright green. In an instant, everything went from blue to colorful, and if the surroundings weren't still blurred, Sasuke might have thought he had woken up and all of that had been a dream of his own.

People around them started to move and chat, appearing in the distance, while on the front ground he could see a familiar street that led to the Academy, and an even younger Sakura crying, sitting on the grass. The Sakura that was with him before had disappeared. Coming from all around them, voices that sounded both masculine and feminine started to whisper harsh words to the little girl and, to Sasuke's surprise, when the figures that were uttering those words finally appeared they showed themselves to be not adults, but children. Their faces were unrecognizable, their whole body a dark shadow, lurking closer to the young girl sitting on the floor crying. He noticed then that their words started to sound more clear to him, and they were mostly about how ridiculous her forehead looked and how no one would ever notice her because of her weird looks, especially the one boy she loved.

Without wasting any more time, Sasuke unsheathed his sword and ran towards the young Sakura, slaying every shadow he spotted, noticing how they dismantled as soon as Kusanagi touched them. The young Sakura didn't look up, she kept on crying on the floor as Sasuke slashed them all, but the more of them he hit, the more showed up. After a little while, Sasuke finally accepted that slaying the shadows was definitely not taking them anywhere, and Sakura's sobs behind him pierced his heart so much that all he wanted to do was to take her in his arms and run far away from that place, so she would be free of all of that.

Realising that his wishes meant absolutely nothing there, he decided to stop and think about what would be the best thing to do. He couldn't stop the shadows from saying all those words that hurt Sakura so much, so what was there for him to do?

On the corner of his eye, he saw on the background a blonde young girl with blue eyes walking towards a flower shop.

And suddenly he knew what to do.

Wasting no more time, he took the young Sakura on his arms, her body so small compared to his strong arms that he was afraid he would break her, and unleashed Susanoo's wings to go away from that place to another one he knew very well: a field of flowers not far from Konoha's gates, Sakura's favourite place, where - in the real world - she would spend hours laying among the flowers in Sasuke's arms, telling stories.

When the young Sakura noticed that the voices had stopped, she raised her head slowly, still not seeing well because of the tears on her eyes, and she saw in front of her a blurred yellow figure. Rubbing her eyes to see more clearly, she saw that Ino - a girl from her school - was sitting in front of her, looking at her with determined eyes.

''I- Ino?'' she asked, unsure of why the other girl was there too - Sakura had never been a popular girl and it was all very strange to see the most beautiful and charismatic girl in school sitting in front of her on her favorite place.

''Why are you crying, Sakura?'' the blonde girl demanded. Sakura lowered her head, she wished to cry again.

''I'm ugly, nobody likes me! And it's all because of this strange hair and big forehead, I hate them both!'' she shouted ''Everyone is laughing at me and no one wants to be my friend'' her expression faltered and she lowered her head again to hide it between her legs, but Ino was faster, holding her head with both hands and raising it again so she would face her.

''I don't see anything wrong with your forehead'' she declared with a straight face ''in fact, it's the cutest thing I've ever seen'' she smiled, looking at Sakura's wide eyes and shocked expression and finding it funny ''I don't think you should hide it, hiding it just makes things worse, makes you look like a sheepdog! Instead, show it to the entire world, proudly, because it is yours, and it is part of you and always will be, so there's no reason to be ashamed of it!'' she brought a hand to her pocket and took from it a red ribbon and handed it to Sakura.

The pink haired girl looked shocked at her for a minute, then hesitantly took the ribbon from her hand and wore it, feeling completely exposed now that her forehead was visible for everyone to see.

''There'' Ino smiled proudly at her, and the way she smiled somehow made Sakura think of the young Uchiha boy who had stolen her heart. For the first time, thinking of him didn't make her feel sad, thinking he would never notice her, instead she felt full of hope and more determined than ever to win his heart ''don't listen to what these people say to you, the only opinions that should matter to you are your own and the ones of the people who are most important to you''.

For the first time, the young Sakura smiled widely at the friend in front of her.

Inwardly, Sasuke sighed in relief, but that feeling didn't last long: in the next moment, the shadows started to appear again, coming from the corners of that world in their direction. But when Sasuke looked back at Sakura with worried eyes, he saw that her own face showed no glimpse of worry. The shadows approached until they were a few feet away from them, but then they stopped, as if unable to move forward, and even though they tried to find another way closer to them, there was none: they were somehow being pushed away, prevented from coming anywhere near the two of them.

''You know'' Sakura started, a little bit unsure, and Ino turned her full attention back at her ''there is this guy I like from the Academy'' her face blushed as she spoke, and Ino had to do her best to control herself so she wouldn't smile ''I don't think he likes me, but I like so much that my heart aches when I'm around him, and I would do anything to make him happy'' she lowered her head ''do you think… do you think I stand a chance…?'' she asked, looking at Ino expectantly.

Ino pretended to be thinking hard ''if it's the person I'm thinking, I must tell you that he's very stubborn and hard to deal with'' he swallowed his pride hard and added ''and very proud and selfish sometimes too'' Sakura looked confused at her ''but don't give him up, he needs you more than you can imagine, and much more than he realises now, but someday he will, I promise you'' she reassured her, and Sakura gave her another one of her warm wide smiles and nodded, glowing with so much happiness than in a second all shadows were pushed away violently, and the world around them became brighter.

Soon after that, Sakura said goodbye to her new friend and ran to her house, skipping with joy, and the surroundings around him started to look blue and purple again.

Ino sighed, her hair getting darker and her body growing taller and stronger until Sasuke was back to his body.

''Good job'' he heard someone say next to him after a while, and he looked down to see the Sakura from before standing next to him. Her hair looked a bit longer and her expression lighter, but he thought maybe it was his imagination.

''Shouldn't you be, you know, with Sakura?'' he asked.

''Sakura's mind is not creating any dreams right now, she's just remembering things from the past at the moment, and as I said, I have no role in those'' she shrugged ''you did very well, I'm rather impressed'' she congratulated, looking at him with proud eyes.

Sasuke smiled proudly at himself.

''When you spend so much time with Sakura you end up learning a thing or two about empathy and about comforting others'' he wasn't about to tell her that some of those words were hers, that she had told him one day in the past. His face straightened ''it hurt me to see her in that state''.

He wanted to say more, like how he never imagined Sakura's childhood to have been dark too. He was always thinking about his own past and sometimes about Naruto's too, but Sakura too had endured some hardships when she was a child, and even though she always tried to support them both with their fears and insecurities, he realised neither him nor Naruto ever considered that she too had her own demons from the past and her own insecurities. That she too was human. But she never complained about any of that, she listened to their stories and helped them fight their problems and never mentioned any of hers, so he never thought she actually _had_ or had had any problem. It was so normal to see Sakura as the problem-solver of the group, the one who always had an answer to everything and was always making everyone happy, that it never occurred to him that she had such problems and fears inside of her.

Sakura noticed he was lost in thoughts and decided not to push the subject further. Instead, she patted him on the shoulder.

''You did well, keep it up'' then she looked at the direction she had run to before, during the dream ''I'll just go check if everything is alright, I'll be right back!''

Sasuke sat on the ground while he waited, looking up at the sky above him. It was funny, he thought, to look up at the sky and see memories flowing around instead of the clouds he grew used to watching with Sakura back in their world. He could see some images in the lights glowing in the sky, small parts of different memories being revealed to him. Sasuke felt like it was wrong of him to pry on them, after all, they were Sakura's memories, some were none of his concern. Yet he couldn't help averting his eyes even for a second, his attention caught to one memory of her at Ichiraku's with a troubled face. He had a bad feeling about that memory, and the fact that it was glowing brightly among the others made him suspect that it was the next memory to become a dream - and most likely a nightmare, he suspected. Maybe if he got a closer look he would be able to understand it better and find out how to end the nightmare once it started? As far as he knew from the time he was spending there, slaying things didn't actually solve anything, so he would have to think of something else.

Sasuke gave a quick glance at the direction to which the young Sakura had run to, to make sure she wasn't coming back, before spreading Susanoo's wings and rising high in the sky until he got closer to the flows of light, reaching the memory he was aiming. When he saw Sakura looking worried to the moon in it, and then walking in the direction of Konoha's Gates, realization struck him and he knew which memory that was.

''Damn'' he cursed, clenching his teeth. That memory was so strong that Sasuke could feel some of the feelings Sakura had felt when she lived it. Fear, angst, and emptiness started to fill him and once more he hated himself for having ever made her feel that way. The memory started to become so powerful that he had to bring both arms to cover his head in order to protect himself from the intensity of the energy it emanated.

When he did so, however, he accidentally touched a small part of the image on the light flow.

He lost his balance in the air as he felt his body being violently pushed forward and everything started to twist and turn around him. Then he felt himself falling and falling while thousands of images where popping quickly around him, so quickly that he couldn't understand any of them.

Then suddenly he was laying on a street, a starry sky above him, and looking to his right he could see the Village's Gates.

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HEY EVERYONEEEEEEE ~!

This chapter is a little longer than the prologue heheheh I hope you all like it! I really can't wait to hear what you guys have to say about this, I wholeheartedly hope it pleases you all!

What do you guys think will happen next? ANYONE FORESEEING ANYTHING? LET ME KNOW! Hahahahha I'm having so much fun writing this, I really hope I managed to make you guys have a good time too while reading this, my aim posting my stories is to really share the worlds I like to create for myself and hopefully make other people have a good time too S2!

Please let me know what you thought of this chapter? Please please pleaseeeee?

And now replying to my amazing guestssss:

\- Bleach power: AAA I had so much fun writing this, I hope you like the Dream World and everything Sasuke saw in it! Any predictions as to what will happen next? :D

\- monsuno power: What do you think? :D Was it as you were expecting? I hope you like this chapter, thanks for reading!

\- jstasasusakufan: Now this was a quick update wasn't it? Hahaha I hope you had a good time reading this chapter and that you continue to read this story, I look forward to seeing you around again! ^-^

\- SorV: AWW THANK YOUUUU! It makes me super super happy to hear that you like it! I promise to continue to do my best not to disappoint you! Thanks for your review!

\- Mix: Graciasss! Que pensas sobre este capítulo? Espero que hayas gustado!

Guys, thank you all so much for reviewing! I really hope you guys continue to read this and that you have a good time!

I'll see you all soon! (I HOPE, I'LL TRY TO WRITE MORE SOON I SWEAR!)

Big hugs!

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Blackfan Diamond


	3. Memories

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CHAPTER 2: MEMORIES

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In a second, Sasuke was up, looking around in confusion.

''Has another dream started?'' he asked himself ''It would not surprise me at all if Sakura had nightmares about this one night too'' he sighed, running one hand through his hair ''where is that young Sakura, why didn't she come and warn me about it?''

Steps approaching took Sasuke away from his thoughts and he jumped back to hide behind some trees, lowering his chakra signature so no one would notice him. Walking in the direction of the gates in a slow pace was a younger version of himself, his face down and a backpack on his shoulder. He couldn't see his facial expression, but he knew very well what he was feeling back then.

Before he managed to do anything at all, though, like trying to stop him from leaving or whatever it would take for that nightmare to stop, a loud shriek resounded in the air, forcing him to cover his ears to protect them. Sasuke looked around and he saw that the sky was getting darker, the once visible stars now completely hidden behind dark clouds that suddenly appeared in it, and it looked like a storm was coming.

When he looked ahead again, he saw that his younger version wasn't there anymore, he was gone.

A hand silently reached his shoulder and he prepared himself to attack whoever - or whatever - it was, but green, and _very angry,_ eyes met his, and before he could utter a single word, she grabbed his arm tight and quickly started to pull him up, flying in the sky and carrying him, heading to a spot in the sky where a hole disrupted the dark sky like a fabric that had been torn, and on the other side laid a violet and blurred sky, with glowing lights floating around.

Sasuke managed to glance down one more time before they went through that hole, seeing Sakura approaching the bench where he had left her unconscious all those years ago, but this time she was alone and awake, looking around trying to find someone who was no longer there.

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''Okay, _what did you do?!''_ she demanded as soon as they landed back where she had left him before.

''What I'm supposed to, putting an end to the nightmares'' he replied simply. He tried his best to sound confident, but the way all had happened made him feel deep inside that things were definitely not right.

'' _That_ was no nightmare!'' she shouted ''that was Sakura's memory and you totally messed it up!'' her face was red of anger and even though she had a child's face, her expression made Sasuke as uncomfortable as when they upset the grown up Sakura back in their world.

''I did nothing but to watch'' he defended himself, feeling his stomach hurt a bit of worry with her words.

The young Sakura covered her face with her hands, trying to calm herself down.

''Did I not tell you to _wait_ while I was checking if everything was alright? Why did you get closer to the memories? I told you they are dangerous!''

''You're exaggerating, nothing happened'' he tried to reason ''I was still thinking about what to do when all of those things happened, none of it was my doing''.

The young Sakura pondered for a moment, walking from one side to the other, uneasy.

''How come all of that happened then? It definitely did not happen in real life'' then she stopped for a moment and blinked a few times ''or did it?''

Sasuke stared at her.

''No, it didn't. It was certainly not like that'' he then added ''do you think something bad will happen to that memory?''

She didn't reply for long minutes.

''I don't know, I hope not'' she sighed and sat on the grass ''given you didn't do anything, as you claim, maybe that was just her brain's defense mechanism to try to make you go away. After all, you don't belong here, you're like an antigen in this place, her body will act against you whenever it can'' she nodded a few times ''yes, that must have been it''.

Sasuke breathed a sigh of relief. For a moment he thought something terrible and irreversible had happened.

''So there were no more nightmares while I was away?'' he tried to change the subject, the last one was making him anxious.

Sakura shook her head.

''They don't happen in a sequence, you know? People don't normally have one nightmare after the other in one single night'' she explained.

Sasuke nodded in agreement and she looked up at the memories in the sky.

''I must get ready for the next dreams now. If I'm not mistaken, the next one is one I particularly really like'' she giggled to herself ''Things should be fine for tonight, I don't think there is any more job for you here today'' she got up and cleaned the dirt in her clothes, then smiled at him ''you did good, we'll never have a nightmare again when we dream that specific dream, because you've solved it. Every time we dream that, things will turn out okay now'' she smiled proudly at him ''thanks again! You should rest now''

''How many nightmares are there for us to solve?'' he asked.

Sakura had to give it a little thought.

''There are 9 major nightmares. And I say 'major' because they are not like the ones we used to have in the past'' she looked to the sky again and for a moment seemed lost in thoughts ''I can't recall precisely when they started, but these 9 specific nightmares seem very powerful and scary, and they come much more frequent than normal nightmares, which with time I can solve by myself. These I never can''.

Sasuke waited to see if she was going to say something else, but she didn't, she just kept staring at the memories in the sky, her thoughts miles away from there.

''In that case, I will see you tomorrow. We can sort out another couple of nightmares then''.

Sakura turned back to him and nodded, giving him a small smile.

A moment later he saw a memory glow brightly in the sky and the world change just like it had happened earlier, and Sakura's eyes glowed when the dream started. The last thing he saw before he stopped his kekkei genkai and was slowly taken away from that world was Team 7 having a picnic in their favorite spot, Naruto happily calling Sakura to join them and she running in their direction, a wide smile on her face.

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Sasuke opened his eyes to find himself back in bed, the moonlight making the room partially illuminated, and next to him Sakura was sound asleep, a smile on her lips.

He gently kissed her forehead and wrapped an arm around her waist, bringing her closer to him, inhaling the sweet smell she exhaled, the one he had grown so used to and couldn't stay away from, like a drug, his drug.

He breathed deep and smiled from the corner of his mouth, feeling glad that things were turning out well.

Soon she would be free of all nightmares, he was going to make sure of that.

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When Sasuke woke up that morning, the first thing he did was reach to his side to bring her closer to him. To his surprise, though, he was alone in bed.

He grunted in displease and sat on the bed, rubbing his eyes.

''You're awake, finally!'' she sang, entering the room and greeting him with a sweet smile.

She was already in her white uniform she wore at work, he noticed, meaning it was already past 7 am.

''Hn.''

''I've never seen you sleep so much, you must have been really tired'' Sakura commented ''tell me what you dreamed about!'' she asked, laying on her back next to him.

He smiled from the corner of his mouth, then laid next to her and brought her closer to him.

''I can't recall it, I'm sorry''.

She made a face.

''What about you? Any nightmares?'' he asked, looking at her face to see if he could spot any trace of worry or fear on it.

She shook her head and frowned.

''It started like a nightmare'' she began ''one concerning my childhood. I've had this same dream many times before, but it always ended badly. This time it didn't, things were just fine'' she rose her head to smile at him and pecked his cheek ''I'm happy!''

Sasuke nodded repeatedly at her, pleased with her answer.

''Buuuuuuut, I must go now!'' she exclaimed, getting up ''Lots of work await me at the hospital, I can't be late!'' she reached for her bag on the floor and threw it on her shoulder ''I'll see you later, you'll treat me to dinner tonight!'' she said, placing a small kiss on his lips before rushing to the door.

Sasuke followed her with his eyes until she shut the door behind her, then he fell on the bed again and brought an arm over his face.

''Things seem okay'' he thought aloud, sighing in relief. Good, no damage was made while he was lurking on Sakura's mind, and she seemed completely unaware of what he did, so everything was happening just like it should.

Sasuke was left to spend the entire day training with Naruto again. Even though he had stood by Konoha's side when there was war and officially came back to Konoha, once more becoming a Ninja of the Leaf Village, he was still paying for his past sins. Not only was he forbidden to leave the Village and was not assigned to any mission, there was this unspoken punishment that he was also always being watched by someone from ANBU, to make sure he was staying in line. Sasuke didn't like any of this at all, but he was somehow also thankful for this last condition: it was because Sakura was assigned to keep an eye on him during his first semester back in the village that he managed to get closer to her again. And even though Sasuke felt rather annoyed with that fact at first, he knew that his life without Sakura was now unimaginable, and he was the luckiest of men because she forgave him and accepted him back in her life.

''Oi, Teme! Got your head in the clouds again?'' Naruto shouted at him, crossing his arms in front of his body.

Sasuke shook his head.

''Just thinking about how we got where we are now'' he replied.

Naruto blinked a couple times and looked at the training grounds around them.

''With our… _legs_?''

Sasuke snorted and rolled his eyes.

''C'mon, Dobe, let's practice that last attack sequence one more time'' he went back to fighting position, focusing on the blonde in front of him and activating Sharingan.

Naruto nodded with excitement and prepared to attack, but a very shaken chakra signature approaching made both of them look at its direction with alarm.

''SASUKE! NARUTO!'' they heard Kiba calling, running in their direction as fast as he could ''You _must_ come to the hospital right now! There's something wrong with Sakura-san!''

Blue and onyx eyes widened in horror, and without wasting another second they ran for dear life to get to their teammate.

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Ta daaaaa! A new chapter for you guys!

I KNOW THIS ONE IS SHORTER, BUT I PROMISE I DID MY BEST OKAY ;-;

I hope you all like it and that you had a very good time reading it :3 I always feel so excited when a new chapter of the fics I follow is released, it really makes my day much brighter! I hope I could make your days a little bit happier with this new chapter of Knightmares S2 !

Thank you all for the reviews, they make me so so so so so happy and keep me motivated to keep on writing! You're the best!

And nowwwwwwww, replying to my adorable Guests reviews!

\- monsuno power: Thank YOU for taking the time to write me a review! It's always a pleasure to hear from you! How did you find this new chapter? Was it how you were expecting it to be? What do you think will happen in the next one? Let me know!

\- Bleach power: Hahahaha yes she does! She has a very strong personality, I bet Sasuke isn't used to being spoken to that way! Hahahah And YES HE DIDDDDD! He claims all that mess was not his doing, but what do you think? Any predictions as to what will happen next? I'm very eager to hear from you again, thanks so much for your review!

That's it, everyone! I hope you had a good time reading this new chapter! Please leave me a review and let me know what you think? Your reviews are what keep me motivated to keep writing :3

Biiiig hugs!

.

Blackfan Diamond


	4. Consequences

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CHAPTER 3: CONSEQUENCES

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''Where is she?'' the Uchiha demanded as soon as they walked through the hospital's door, alarming both those who were working there and the patients.

But before the poor lady working behind the reception's desk could reply to the furious man in front of her, Tsunade showed up, walking quickly in their direction with a stern face.

''You two, follow me'' she commanded, her voice failing to conceal all of the worries she was feeling inside ''I'll take you to her''

Neither of the two ninjas needed any more convincing, and they both followed her quickly through the hospital's corridors.

''Baa-chan! What exactly happened to Sakura-chan?'' Naruto asked while they still followed her with quick steps.

Tsunade shook her head a few times, her eyebrows furrowed.

''It was still the middle of the morning when she started to behave strangely, not like her usual self'' she started ''she was more aggressive than normal, easily irritated, and rather confused about some things''

''Confused?'' Sasuke inquired.

''Yes. More than once would she stop to think about things we were telling her or feel confused about what happened in the past'' she sighed ''less than an hour ago she had a big panic attack because she couldn't understand anything that was happening and was convicted that all of this was a genjustsu that she was trapped in''

Shizune then appeared, walking alongside them until they all stopped in front of a door.

''We had no choice but to sedate her before she could hurt herself or anyone in the hospital'' she said with a low voice, feeling almost guilty.

Sasuke wasted not another second and flung the door open, rushing inside the room.

Sakura was laying on a bed, her pink hair contrasting with the white of the bed sheet, her expression so peaceful that it was hard to believe that she had behaved like they were told she did just a few moments ago. Sasuke lowered himself next to her and before he could take notice of what he was doing, he was already bringing one hand to her forehead to check if there was a fever.

''It took us all by surprise'' Shizune started ''when she arrived she was behaving just like her usual self, but the more we spoke to her, the more she said things didn't make any sense in her head and that everything was getting confused, until she panicked and things got out of control'' she lowered her head ''we put her to sleep to think about what to do, but both Tsunade-sama and I have examined her and she seems perfectly fine, nothing seems different''

''Kiba was here to ask her if she could see Akamaru's leg when it happened, so we asked him to hurry and call you two in hopes you could calm her down'' Tsunade explained ''but we couldn't waste another second so we had to sedate her. We intend to wait until the medicine's effect is over and then have you two talk to her, maybe figure out what's wrong''

Naruto nodded repeatedly, his face showing deep concern about his best friend's health, and he pulled a chair to sit next to her.

Sasuke didn't reply at all, he wasn't even paying much attention to what the two women were saying anymore. He was lost in his own thoughts.

 _What have I done?_

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''She's awakening!'' Naruto exclaimed, rising from his chair and getting closer to the bed.

Sasuke lifted his head and stared at her face - he had been holding her hand with both of his, his head resting next to her body as he thought about everything that had happened and how he was going to make things better.

Sakura blinked a few times, feeling dizzy and completely lost.

''Where… where am I?'' she asked.

''Sakura-chan, don't worry!'' Naruto reassured her, looking her in the eyes with determination ''you're at the hospital. Except that this time as a patient!'' he laughed at his comment, but Sakura was looking at him with a stern expression, so his laugh quickly died.

''How are you feeling? We were told you were confused before'' Sasuke intervened, drawing her attention to himself. Sakura looked at him with surprise, then looked down at their intertwined hands and quickly pulled her hand away from his.

''Sasuke? How come you are here?'' she asked, looking at him with suspicion.

Sasuke was taken aback by the lack of the suffix at the end of his name, but made an effort to regain his composure not to alarm her.

''I came with Naruto as soon as we were told you weren't well'' he explained, putting some distance between them in hopes Sakura would lower her guard a bit, but it was to no avail.

Sakura looked like she was going to say something else, she was obviously not buying any of his words. But then, suddenly, her expression softened and she sat in bed.

''I see'' she started, as if measuring her words ''I'm sorry I made the two of you worry. I would like to rest a little bit more now, if that's okay''

Naruto was the first to nod in agreement, pulling his chair back to sit down.

''Alone.'' she added, not looking at him.

The blonde froze for a moment, unsure of how to react, but Sasuke was faster and took him by the arm before he could say anything.

''If there's anything you need, let us know'' he said while dragging Naruto out of the room and closing the door behind them.

''What is wrong with her?'' Naruto asked once they were back at the corridor ''something about her just seems… off. I don't know how to explain, I just know that that's not the normal Sakura-chan!'' he furrowed his brows and crossed his arms.

Sasuke said nothing, all he knew was that he would have to fix whatever it was that he had caused. And that he would have to keep an eye on her all the time. He wasn't sure why, but her change of behavior inside of the room didn't fool him. He knew she was up to something.

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''How do you find this fresh air?'' Ino smiled at her friend, spinning with joy as they walked through a field, the same one where Team 7 had once fought against Kakashi in the Bell Test.

''Very relaxing'' Sakura replied, cautiously examining everything around them.

''She doesn't look relaxed at all'' Naruto commented from behind the tree he was hiding, looking uneasy as his friend walked with slow paces a few meters ahead of them.

Sasuke didn't reply. Since Sakura left the hospital after staying there to run some exams for 2 days, both Naruto and Sasuke had been following her around all the time, trying to figure out what exactly was wrong with her. Despite having not said it aloud, it was quite obvious by her attitude that she didn't want either man anywhere close to her: Sasuke because she clearly didn't believe a word he said and acted as if he would attack her at any second, and Naruto because she suspected he was somehow involved with the Uchiha's plans.

Even though she hadn't mentioned anything about being confused or about things not making any sense again, since she left the hospital, Sasuke was sure that it was all pretense.

''This is all so weird!'' Naruto started ''she was completely fine one day, then suddenly all of this happened! Not even Baa-chan could tell what's wrong with Sakura-chan…'' he then looked at Sasuke with determination ''Sasuke, we have to bring Sakura-chan back''

''Aa'' he agreed. Perhaps the young Sakura in her mind could have the answers he was looking for.

But… at the same time, Sasuke felt afraid of trying to get into Sakura's mind again. If going there one time had caused all this damage, what would going there a second time do?

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When Sakura was asleep that night, Sasuke sneaked into her apartment, silently entering her room. Her forehead furrowed in distress as she dreamed.

Slowly, the Uchiha approached her in the bed and laid a hand on her forehead, activating Sharingan just like he had done a few nights before, and he was once more pulled into Sakura's mind.

''So here we are again'' he said to himself when he opened his eyes and found himself in the same spot he had left the other time. Sasuke started to walk and look around, noticing some small details that looked different from the last time he had been there. Or it was his own mind playing tricks on him. To him, the place sounded even quieter than before, and unlike his first impression on his first time there, it now didn't look safe to wander around, he couldn't get himself to lower his guard.

From the corner of his eye, he noticed a shadow moving quickly on his right and, with no hesitation, he drew his sword.

''Oh, it's just you'' he heard a familiar voice say, then from nowhere the form of a little girl with pink hair started to appear, until she was standing in front of him ''I was afraid it was one of those beasts again''

''What beasts? What's going on?'' he demanded, sheathing his sword again.

The girl looked around a couple times, then grabbed his arm.

''It's not safe to talk in here'' she whispered ''follow me''.

Sasuke did as he was told, quickly walking alongside her until they made it to the last place he had expected to be taken to: Ichiraku's Ramen shop.

''Why here?'' he asked as they sat on one of the tables. Just like the rest of that world, all the environment around him was painted light purple, the world blurred, waving around him like an illusion, the light dim and no sound to be heard. Still, he felt somehow safer there than he was feeling on any other place in that world. A fire was lit in the middle of the room and the light looked brighter and more real than anything else there, it was almost as if it was from the real world.

''Because here it's safe'' she replied, resting her chin on the table ''since you left that other day, things started to become strange. Dreams that used to be good are turning bad, shadow beasts have been showing up and tormenting all the dreams and sometimes…'' she stopped and brought both hands to her head, gripping her hair tight ''sometimes I get confused about what is real and what is not, some memories look so messed up… I can't tell if I'm going mad or what…''

Sasuke watched her while she spoke, feeling more worried at the second.

''Has anything else happened that might have caused all of this?''

The young Sakura thought for a while.

''I'm not sure… It all started after you left that day'' she then rose her head and looked at him accusingly ''I told you that it was bad to have you here! You caused all of this mess!''

''Let's not start pointing fingers at anyone yet, okay'' he defended himself ''how about we go take a look at the memories to see if we can figure something out?''

''No way!'' she shook her head and spread both her arms, rising from her chair ''you're not going anywhere near those memories again, you've damaged enough already!''

Sasuke sighed.

''If we can't find out what is causing all of this, how are we supposed to fix it?''

''Still'' she crossed her arms stubbornly.

Sasuke tried his best to remain calm, trying not to lose his temper.

''Listen, Sakura has been treating me like a stranger and some sort of evildoer and I can't take this anymore. I need her back'' he said with a straight face.

The young Sakura took a step back and lowered her head, thinking deeply.

''Fine… but I'll stay close to you and watch your every move to prevent you from doing anything stupid again!'' she said declared.

Sasuke nodded in agreement and got up. As he suspected, as soon as they left Ichiraku's, the feeling of danger and uneasiness invaded him again.

''Why is Ichiraku's, among all other places here, the only safe spot?'' he asked while they walked back to the open field above which most of the memories lingered.

''Because that's the place where most of Sakura's happiest memories took place'' she explained, not taking her eyes from the sky ''it is a place replenished with happy moments, so no nightmare or anything evil can approach that place. That's a sacred place here, it represents happiness and safety''

Sasuke glanced back at the small restaurant, barely visible now due to the distance, it was only a blurred image now. He recalled that most of Team 7's meetings in the past were held there, and it was also a place where there were gatherings with friends and where they held celebrations too. Even nowadays, it was like a ritual to go there with their close friends. It should've come to him as no surprise that the place was so special to Sakura.

''There they are'' she said loud, halting and pointing at the sky. Sasuke looked up and saw the same memories he had seen that last time floating in the sky ''Hurry! Let's go before a dream starts and we can't reach them!''

They were very close to one of the memories when suddenly Sasuke felt an invisible force push him back, repelling him with such force that he lost his balance in the air and was thrown back, hitting the girl behind him.

''What's this?'' she asked, eyes widened.

Sasuke tried to approach the closest memory once more, but was again repelled by something they couldn't see or touch. The young Sakura tried herself to reach one of the memories, but it was like an invisible barrier was preventing them from going any further. She was going to give it another try when Sasuke held her back, grabbing her arm and pulling her back to his side. Just as she was about to shout in protest, she noticed that his eyes were staring with a hard expression at something ahead of them. Looking in that direction, she saw that from one of the memories a dark fog started to appear, and suddenly from it a shadow in human shape came out. The shadow glanced at them and started to laugh loud, it's voice echoing all around them, forcing them to cover their ears, and Sasuke felt like he had heard that same sound before. The shadow then turned its back to them and quickly immersed in another memory.

''Sasuke, look!'' the girl shouted. The memory from which the shadow had just come out from, once colorful and full of energy, started to look gray and faint, shrinking and emanating a dark and cold feeling. In an impulse, the young Sakura tried to go after him, pushing through the barrier and cursing like a sailor, but it was useless. The Uchiha then grabbed her arm and pulled her back to the ground, where she pushed him back and started to tread heavily in anger.

''It is that thing!'' she screamed ''that was the same sound that we heard that last time you were here, when you meddled with that memory!'' she looked at him with furious eyes ''Nosy boy! _YOU_ did this when you messed with things that were none of your business!''

Sasuke wasn't sure what surprised him more: if it was Sakura's wrath, the accusation or that she dared call him a _boy._

But it was pointless to think about that now. She was right, after all.

He was the cause of all of this.

He sat on the ground and lowered his head, one hand messing up his hair in frustration.

''It must have created this barrier to stop us from following it'' he concluded. He wasn't looking at her, but he could hear her snort, her anxiety and impatience almost solid, so intense they were.

''Congratulations, genius, you've solved the puzzle!'' she ironized ''anything else you would like to add now that we are stating the obvious?''

Sasuke looked at her angrily, but dared not to say anything. If it had been anyone else, he wouldn't be taking any of those offenses. But that was Sakura - or at least, part of her - and she was right.

''You're not helping'' he limited himself to say.

Sakura inhaled deeply and tried to calm down, sitting on the ground next to him and starting to pluck grass in anxiety.

''Do you have any idea of what exactly that shadow is?'' he asked.

She shook her head.

''It does look very similar to those same shadow beasts that keep attacking the dreams and coming after me, but its energy was much, much stronger... It's probably it that keeps sending all the other ones''

''So if we can stop it, things should be okay again, right?'' his voice couldn't hide the small hope he still had that he could solve everything and things would go back to how they used to be. But Sakura's expression wasn't much reassuring.

''I don't know... You saw what it did to that memory, I'm not sure if this kind of damage can be fixed...''

Sasuke felt his mouth go dry. What if Sakura's memories were forever damaged because of this? What if she never went back to how she used to be?

''But one thing is certain'' she began, drawing his attention back to her ''we have to stop it from causing further damage! After that, we can think about how to fix what has already been impaired''

''That sounds good'' he agreed ''you're from this place, is there any other way to reach the memories other than this? Have you got any idea of what we should do next?''

She had to think for a second.

''I might do, perhaps if we try to-''

Suddenly the entire world began to shake, like a big earthquake, and everything around him began to shatter as if it was all an image in a mirror that had just been broken. Sasuke felt a great pain in his stomach and all he could hear was the young Sakura shouting his name before the entire world started to twirl and he felt like he was being pulled away from it.

His back hurt when he hit a wall, and he opened his eyes to see that he was in a dark room, laying on his back on the floor. It took a little while for him to adapt his vision and see that in front of him stood a woman, her fists glowing with chakra and her face filled with hate.

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LADIES AND GENTLEMEN:

ANOTHER CHAPTER!

Hahahahahahha

SOOOO, WHAT DID YOU GUYS THINK? AAA I'M SO CURIOUS TO HEAR IF YOU GUYS LIKED IT AND YOUR COMMENTS! Even though I know I'll get like, only 2-3 reviews xD I LOVE YOU GUYS WHO WRITE ME A REVIEW, YOU'RE THE REASON I HAVEN'T GIVEN THIS UP YET S2 YOU MAKE ME FEEL LIKE I'M NOT JUST TALKING TO MYSELF HERE

I've been trying my best to post one chapter a week, but PERHAPS after the next couple chapters it might take a little longer for me to post new chapters cause uni is killing me so I don't have enough time to write ;-;

But I'll always come back S2 !

Now I'd like to reply to my SUPER AWESOME AND CUTE AND FABULOUS Guests !

\- Bleach power: IKRRRR I wish Sasuke could be like this in the anime too ;-; BUT IT'S ALRIGHT, WE LOVE HIM NONETHELESS! YES, HE MESSED UP! AAAAAAA! And I don't think it'll be easy to fix things now! What do you think? BOOOY I LOVE YOUR IDEAASSS! You actually guessed some of them right, O-M-G! You're awesome! And yus! young Sakura knows how to put Sasuke in his place! What did you think of this chapter? Thanks A LOT for reviewing, you're super super sweet and adorable! S2 BIG HUGS!

\- monsuno power: YOU GOT THISSSSS! Our memories make us who we are, so ofc when Sasuke messed with them it had a much bigger consequence than he was expecting! PROBLEMS EVERYWHERE NOW AAA! Now, how's Sasuke going to fix all this mess he made? Tsk tsk, Sasuke, Sasuke! Always making things hard for poor Sakura! Hahahah What did you think of this chapter? Any predictions as to what will happen next? THANK YOU FOR YOUR REVIEW! I hope you like this new chapter! Big hugs!

THAT'S IT, EVERYONEEEE

See you next week! (Hopefully!)

BIG HUGS!

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Blackfan Diamond


	5. Asleep

This chapter is dedicated to monsuno power and Bleach power

You two are the best S2 !

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CHAPTER 4: ASLEEP

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''What are you doing here?!'' she demanded, her teeth gritting in anger.

''Sakura'' he began, rising from the ground ''Calm down''

'' _Calm down?!_ ''' she shouted, coming closer to him with her fists clenched, and Sasuke realised that that had been an irrational choice of words.

''Sakura, you're not thinking clearly, something has happened in your head and I'm trying to help you get it fixed'' he tried to reason.

''I'm fine, thank you very much!'' she retorted, clearly irritated with his presence in her bedroom.

''Let me explain!''

''I don't want anything from you! Leave! Now!''

Sasuke wanted to keep on trying to persuade her to at least let him explain, but the fierce look on her face and the fists glowing with chakra showed him that she was definitely not in the mood for talking.

Without another word, he left the apartment.

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''Aah, Teme, you really are a thing'' Naruto giggled from the other side of the table ''you know how Sakura-chan has been acting strange and still you sneaked like a weirdo into her bedroom at night? What a stalker!''

Sasuke gave him a deadly look.

''I thought I could fix her... problem. I was wrong'' he said, taking another sip of his sake.

''Wait, so you've found out what's wrong with her?!'' Naruto shouted, hitting his cup hard on the table and drawing everyone's attention.

''Not so loud, Dobe'' Sasuke reprimanded, looking annoyed at him ''I have''

Naruto gasped.

''Then spit it out!'' he urged.

Knowing that Naruto wouldn't stop making noise and disturbing everyone at the bar unless he spoke, Sasuke decided to tell him everything from the very beginning.

''WHAT?! So the cause of all this mess is _you_?!'' he exclaimed.

''Dobe, I swear that if you shout one more time inside this bar you'll be getting out of here in a hospital bed''

''Pff as if you could lay a single hit on me'' he dared, twisting his nose ''but tell me then, how do we fix this mess?''

Sasuke leaned forward.

''This shadow I told you about, we must find a way to find it and stop it before it causes any more damage in Sakura's memories. Who knows what it's already changed in there…''

Naruto hesitated for a second, then said with caution.

''Our memories make who we are, don't they? Do you think… do you think Sakura-chan can become a whole different person if more of her memories are impaired? Can she stop being Sakura-chan?''

''I'm afraid she already isn't Sakura anymore'' Sasuke said, looking at the bar's entrance in the direction of her apartment.

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Sasuke thought it was strange to lay in bed alone in the Uchiha's District, it had been a long time since he had last slept there, and now he was spending an entire week in that cold room, alone in bed. When he came back to Konoha, at first he was staying at the hospital, then in jail, lastly at Naruto's for a few weeks, when finally he moved in with Sakura. He had gotten used to her apartment, to the way it smelled, to the colors of the walls, to the way the sunlight passed through the thin curtains, to the fresh fruit that was always on the table, to the flower arrangements Sakura loved to do in her free time and were decorating all rooms, to the sofa where they would spend nights together drinking and telling stupid stories - well, Sakura would tell such stories and laugh aloud all the time, while Sasuke would simply enjoy her presence and her smile that, to him, was the most beautiful thing ever to exist -, and to the couples mugs Sakura insisted on buying during the last Spring Festival and made sure he used every day. If he was honest, ever since he came back to Konoha, he hadn't spent a single day in his own home, it felt awkward to be in it again after so many years.

A gust of wind hit his face and he turned his head to the right to find his bedroom's window opened. Sasuke sat in bed and closed his eyes.

''What is it?''

A ninja from ANBU stepped forward and bowed lightly.

''Lady Tsunade requests your presence in her tower'' he said.

Sasuke looked at him confused for a moment, then nodded and the man was gone. It was the middle of the night, most of the city was asleep, what could the Hokage possibly want that couldn't wait until the morning?

Grunting, he stood up and started to change.

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''Leave and close the door behind you'' Tsunade commanded, looking forward with a hardened expression. The ninja bowed and did as he was told, leaving in the room only the Hokage, Naruto, Sasuke and Kakashi.

''What is all of this?'' Sasuke asked as soon as he heard the door shut.

Tsunade closed her eyes and inhaled deeply, putting her elbows on the table in front of her, her hands partially covering her face.

''I don't think there's an easy way to say this, so I'll just blurt it out'' Kakashi started, standing in front of both man, his back to Tsunade ''right now, someone broke into the Sealed Room, where all the most important scrolls are kept, including those who hold classified information about Konohagakure. The thief was clever enough as not to alarm anyone, in fact, had Lady Tsunade not suspected something like this would happen, sensitive information about the Village would've been taken away from Konoha right under our nose''

''What are you saying, Kakashi-sensei?!'' Naruto shouted ''so you've caught who's behind all of this?''

Kakashi lowered his head and shook it.

''We sent some of the most qualified shinobi from ANBU to the Sealed Room as soon as the incident happened, but the thief managed to defeat them all. None was killed, but they are all unconscious and deeply injured'' he said, glancing at Tsunade to see if she wanted to add something, but she just kept looking forward with a stern face ''the thief has escaped, but we know that she is still in Konoha because one of our men managed to lock a chain on her leg that would immediately tell us her location if she stepped out of the Village''

''Wait, is it a she?!'' Naruto gaped.

Sasuke compressed his lips.

''You said there was no easy way to say this, I take there's more to it than what you just said'' he knew what Kakashi was going to say next, but he had to hear him say it.

Kakashi exhaled, suddenly feeling like all his energy was drained from him.

''The thief-''

''It's Sakura''

Both Naruto and Sasuke looked at Tsunade, Naruto's eyes almost popping out, so shocked he was.

''WHAT?!''

After his scream, there was silence in the room for a few moments.

''Baa-chan'' Naruto started, stepping closer to the desk and putting his both hand on it ''this can't be right, why would Sakura-chan do this?!''

''I have no idea, and now it's not the time to discuss that'' she stood up ''right now she is a danger to Konoha's safety and must be treated as such. I want the two of you to go look for her in the Village, find out where she's hiding, and once you find her, bring her to me'' she commanded ''be stealth, we don't want to alarm her and risk inciting her to do something that might bring us bigger problems later on, this is why you two are the only ones in this mission. I'm counting on your discretion.''

''But this makes absolutely no sense, why would Saku- OI, TEME! Where are you going?!'' Naruto couldn't stop the Uchiha as he jumped out of the window to the streets of the village. He had no time to lose.

He had to find her.

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After spending an entire hour trying to find Sakura and getting nowhere, Sasuke decided that it was impossible to find Sakura when she didn't want to be found. His only option then would be to lure her out of wherever she was hiding. He would have to hurry, he thought to himself looking at the sky, the night was almost over, and it would be impossible to find her in the middle of Konoha's usual crowds.

Putting his hand inside his shirt, he pulled out a necklace, a pendant the shape of a leaf hanging on it, shining in seven colours. Sasuke walked slowly towards the Village's Gate, where it all once more started.

''If you want this back, come and get it'' he said in a low voice to his surroundings as he stopped next to the bench he had once left her. Though she probably didn't remember that anymore.

She was there, he was sure. He could feel bright green eyes staring at him in the night. Suddenly, steps were heard from behind him.

''So you're not only an intruder but also a burglar'' she said, her voice calm, yet cold, so cold that Sasuke felt a chill on his spine from hearing that come from the face he loved the most.

''It wasn't me who stole scrolls from the Sealed Room and left well-trained shinobi unconscious on my way out'' he pointed out, watching her every move as she approached him, walking past him until she had her back to the Village's Gate.

''So that gives you the right to steal from me too?''

''I didn't steal this, you gave it to me''

''Lies!'' she gritted her teeth, taking one step on his direction and closing her right hand in a fist.

''Sakura'' he called for her, trying to reach some part of her - any part - that was still his, _his_ , old Sakura ''listen to me, your mind is confused and I want to help you, you're not thinking clearly now''

''Oh, I'm thinking very clearly. And I'm not taking any help from an Uchiha'' she spatted the last word as if it was dirt in her mouth.

''When you woke up at the hospital, one week ago, didn't you say things looked confusing?'' he appealed, taking one step forward ''this is the reason! Your mind isn't working as it should, the real enemy is inside your head and I need you to let me defeat it!''

''I've had enough of you already, give me the Seven-Coloured Leaf'' she said and, without waiting any other second, she attacked him.

They fought for long minutes, both trying their best not to make any noise and risk drawing attention to their fight, while their bodies moved like a dance, the only sounds to be heard being their fists and weapons colliding. Sasuke knew he was in disadvantage: while he was fighting to stop her, trying his best not to hurt her, she couldn't care less if he ended up killed in their fight, she was fighting for real. He knew there would be no way to stop her without hurting her or not getting himself badly injured.

''On that day, you taught me that solitude is painful, I understand that so well right now''

Sakura's eyes widened and she tried to kick him, but he blocked her leg with his arm so she was forced to jump back to put some distance between them. She didn't attack him again.

''I have friends here in Konoha now, but if you're gone…'' his face showed such pain that Sakura dared not move ''it would be the same as being alone''

Her expression froze, she looked at him in confusion, her brain processing one million things at the same time, yet she couldn't find an answer as to why she was feeling the way she was because of his words. Sasuke lowered his arms, no longer defending himself, and took one step closer to her.

''If you were to stay here with me, there would be no regrets'' he continued, his voice failing as emotions invaded him ''because every day we would do something fun, we would be happy''

Sasuke was one step away from her, looking down at her confused face. Sakura couldn't let her guard down, but she couldn't get herself to do anything at all either, she was just frozen, his words striking her like a million daggers, and she felt powerless like never before.

''Sakura'' one of his hands slowly wrapped her waist, pulling her closer to him until he was hugging her, his other hand on her head, bringing her closer.

''What are you doing…?'' she managed to say, her body relaxing in his embrace against her will.

He wasn't going to leave her again.

''What have you done to me, what is all of this?'' she demanded, tears forming in the corner of her eyes even though she couldn't tell why all of that was happening, why was her body betraying her like this?

''I love you''

There was silence.

The wind blew on them and its howling was the only sound to be heard.

Sasuke's eyes were closed as he kept holding her. Sakura was paralysed. In her mind, it was like a machine was working madly to try and connect the dots, to try to explain everything that was happening and why such feelings were taking control of her.

Then she relaxed, both her arms hugging him back, one hand slowly going up to his neck.

''You don't fool me''

Sasuke had to act fast, using the hand he was using to hold her head to quickly strike the right nerve in the back of her neck, and she fell unconscious in his arms.

He looked at her face, her expression slowly softening.

''I'm sorry'' he said, his voice filled with sorrow. Gently, he placed a kissed in her forehead, taking in every detail in her face before getting up, carrying her in his arms, and making his way to the Hokage's Tower.

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''What was that for?'' he demanded when Tsunade punched his chest, making him fly to the other side of the room.

''Naruto told me you entered Sakura's mind and caused all of this, how could you be so reckless?!'' her face was pure anger in front of him.

The blonde looked away and pretended to be very interested in a vase on the other side of the room.

''Now that you know what the problem is, can you solve it?'' he asked, getting up again.

''This is bad'' Kakashi commented, he was next to Sakura's bed in the hospital, looking at her with concerned eyes.

''I don't know… But what I do know is that until we find out a way to fix this, Sakura must remain asleep. I've used some drugs that induce long-lasting unconsciousness, so we'll keep her sleeping until we can bring her back'' she sighed ''you, Uchiha, should tell us everything you know about this dream world and everything you did there, don't forget any detail'' she instructed, sitting down and looking at him with expectation.

Sasuke filled the three of them with every single detail possible, hoping that one of them would have an insight and find a way to fix the mess he'd made.

''It looks like the only way to fight this shadow you spoke of is by getting inside her dreams again'' Tsunade concluded ''meaning only you can do it, Sasuke, you and perhaps Kakashi with his Sharingan''

Kakashi shook his head.

''I'm afraid my ocular abilities aren't as powerful as Sasuke's, I would never be able to do such a thing'' he admitted.

Sasuke inhaled deeply, he had already imagined it would all come to that. He would have to fix this alone, after all.

''Uh… wait, so'' Naruto rubbed his temples, thinking hard ''you said that the memories change place in the brain and become vulnerable during sleep, right? So putting Sakura in this everlasting sleep with drugs won't make things worse?''

All eyes in the room turned to the pink-haired shinobi resting on the hospital's bed, in deep sleep. Naruto's words were hanging in the air as concern filled all of them.

''Naruto is right, as long as Sakura's asleep, the shadow can move freely in her mind and cause even more damage, we should keep her awake at all times'' Sasuke said, getting closer to the bed.

''Are you crazy?'' Tsunade intervened ''you saw what happened, we can't possibly let her stay awake! Her actions are unpredictable and dangerous! What do you suggest we do, lock her up and keep her awake 24/7 until she goes crazy?''

''What are we to do then?'' he asked angrily.

No one replied. Sasuke looked at Sakura's face, imagining all horrible things that might be happening in her mind while they were wasting time there.

''There's only one thing you can do'' Kakashi started, drawing everyone's attention to him ''you must go there once again, and this time you'll be racing against time, because every second that goes by, the shadow damages Sakura's memories more and more. You have to go there and find a way to destroy this shadow once and for all, whatever it takes''

''How? I told you, it blocked the path to the memories, I can't reach it!'' Sasuke replied.

''You must find a way!'' he urged ''there's no other choice, Sasuke, she needs you now, only you can help her!''

Sasuke felt the weight of those words. Sakura, his Sakura, would have her fate doomed forever if he didn't do anything. He had caused all of this, so he would have to fix it. And he swore to himself he would, no matter the cost.

''I will save her'' he said with determination, taking Sakura's hand in his.

''We will make sure nothing disturbs you'' Tsunade guaranteed ''just… just bring her back'' she begged.

Sasuke nodded, and the other three started to leave the room

''I remember Sakura-chan daydreaming about princesses asleep and brave knights rescuing them, back when we were younger'' Naruto murmured to himself, releasing a sad laugh, his voice low and filled with sadness ''who would have guessed fate would prepare this evil twist, I'm sure this is not what she had expected…''

Sasuke lowered his head and waited until they were all outside the room before looking back at Sakura. He placed a lock of hair behind her ear and gently caressed her face.

''Don't worry, Sakura, I'll bring you back'' he promised.

Sasuke laid next to her in the bed and brought her closer to him, touching their foreheads lovingly.

Then his eyes started to be painted red.

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* * *

This is probably one of my favourite chapters, I had a very good time writing it xD

I hope you have a good time reading it!

Now replying to my super super awesome guests!

\- monsuno power: omgggg your guesses are so good! Hahahahahahaha IT WILL BE HARD TO IMPRESS YOU! I promise I'll do my best xD What did you think of this chapter? I'm afraid to ask but what do you think will happen next? HAHAHAHA Thanks for your reviewwww! Big hugs!

\- Bleach power: Tsunade indeed got super mad at him for messing up! Hahahah Now Sasuke's back in the Dream World and he'll probably stay there for a long while... Let's hope he can fix things, right? I really love your guesses as to what will happen next, for real! Hhahaha Thank you for understanding! School is killing me so I don't have much free time to write anymore so this story might take a little while to be updated Dx But I wholeheartedly hope you'll still be here when I'm back! :3 Thank you very much for your review! Big hugs!

Please enjoy this chapter, everyone!

Big hugs!

.

Blackfan Diamond


	6. Nightmares

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CHAPTER 5: NIGHTMARES

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Sasuke almost didn't recognize the Dream World when he reached it: the light purple sky was now of a very dark colour, with dark clouds flying among the memories, now of a very dim shade, far from the colourful lights they once were. The grass seemed dead under his feet, and even though he couldn't see them, he could sense the shadows moving behind the dark, leafless trees.

''I must find the young Sakura'' he told himself, looking around and walking with a fast pace in hopes he could find her somewhere soon.

But he found himself to be completely alone in that place, and the silence that lurked there was tormenting, almost driving him crazy.

 _C'mon, where are you hiding?_ He asked himself.

Suddenly, realization struck him and he rushed to the place he was certain he would find her: Ichiraku's, the Safe Place.

His way there, though, was not as smooth as it had been the first time: the more he approached the houses in the village, the more macabre things seemed. Many shadows appeared in every corner, and although they looked totally harmless, it wasn't hard to be jump scared with them whenever they showed up. Sasuke could hear the sound of a sad, slow and melancholic lullaby playing in the background, following his every step, and with it the sound of a woman humming a song too. It did sound like a lullaby for babies, but the way the woman hummed it made it sound much more terrifying than it probably should. The water in the rivers he had to cross on his way had been replaced by blood, and Sasuke could swear that it smelled like it too. On the river, there were corpses of people wearing hospital clothes, and he guessed those probably were the patients Sakura had seen dying. There was a child on the riverside, a boy, his chest opened and his heart exposed, his eyes looking directly at him as he walked, and Sasuke could read that his lips were saying ''please don't let me die, miss''.

He started to hear the sound of a clock ticking, and it was getting faster and faster, making him feel the need to rush for some reason. Looking up at the sky, he could see that one single dark cloud was in front of the moon, hiding it, but it was not long before it vanished and revealed an eye, a snake's eye. Orochimaru's eye, he was sure. And it was following his every move, he noticed.

Sasuke hurried to Ichiraku's and felt a wave of relief fill him when he stepped inside, instantly feeling safer. Sasuke was used to dealing with many kinds of enemies, but he felt strangely restless in that place. The bad news, though, was that there was no sign of the young Sakura there.

''Damn'' he cursed. He was sure he would meet her there. If she wasn't at Ichiraku's, where would she be? He doubted she would be wandering around when things were like that.

When he approached the fire, though, he caught sight of something bright with the corner of his eye. Turning to its direction, Sasuke noticed that it was a paper, folded, on top of the same table where they had sat together the last time they'd been there. Taking it in his hands, he saw that his name was written on it, a child's handwriting, and it looked like it had been written in a hurry.

He didn't waste any more time and sat on the table, unfolding the paper to read its content:

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 _''Sasuke,_

 _I hope you find this paper soon and that it's not too late when you do._

 _Things have been getting stranger here since you left, and I fear that my memory is getting worse by the second, I'm not sure what is real and what is not sometimes, and I fear I might lose myself in this world soon. The nightmares have been getting more often and it's reached a point in which there are no more good dreams, only bad, **very bad** , ones._

 _I've tried to reach that shadow countless times, but I didn't succeed in any of my attempts. I did, however, manage to gather some information that might prove itself useful to you._

 _Read my next words **very carefully** , Sasuke!_

 _I don't know how, but the shadow is connected to the 9 big nightmares I told you about, I know it is! It feeds itself of them, somehow. As we can't go after it, we must bring it to us! You've defeated the first one already, I'm sure you can do the same to the other nightmares so you can weaken the shadow enough to reach it and fight it!_

 _I trust that once you defeat all the nightmares you'll be able to defeat the shadow and prevent it from harming Sakura's mind_ even more, _you must succeed! Use your imagination, there's always a way out of every nightmare! Find a way to solve the puzzle and finish them, these nightmares are not ordinary ones, they have the same evil energy I sensed when we met the shadow the first time. You can't cut through these problems like you usually do though, use that brain of yours and find a solution to the problem faced in each nightmare!_

 _Given your tendency of being reckless, I think it's relevant to add that you MUST NOT DIE! And YES, YOU_ CAN _DIE! Don't be arrogant and think that this is something you can easily solve, remember that your mind is in this world, so if something happens to you in here, your mind won't be able to go back to your body and you'll forever be trapped in the Dream World! So watch out!_

 _My eyes are growing weary and I fear I might not remember much to help you when you come back, so_ hopefully, _this letter will be able to guide you. We are in your hands now, don't fail us!''_

 _._

''Great'' Sasuke said to himself ''I'm basically on my own''

''Sasuke?'' he heard someone calling from outside Ichiraku's and he turned quickly to that direction. He recognized that voice.

As soon as he stepped outside, he saw pink long hair, braided and falling over her shoulder.

''It _is_ you!'' she exclaimed, hugging him tightly.

''You remember me?'' he asked, confused, looking down at the young girl embracing his waist.

''Of course I do, why wouldn't I?''

Sasuke frowned and showed her the letter, watching as she cautiously took it from his hands and read it carefully, her face hard as she went through the words.

''So?'' he asked.

Sakura looked up at him, then back down to the paper again and sighed.

''I don't recall having written this, I'm sorry'' she admitted ''things have indeed been getting confusing here since you left the other day, there are many blank spaces in my memories, it's not surprising that I don't recall even this. But, somehow, I still remember you, I was never confused about who you are''

''How is that possible?'' he gently took the paper back from her hands and placed it in his pocket.

Sakura shrugged.

''You've always been special to Sakura, I think you are not as hard to forget as one might think'' she giggled at her joke ''well, good thing I wrote down this instructions then, because I don't remember them, so we would be completely lost now had I not written them down!''

Sasuke's muscles relaxed and he nodded in agreement.

''Yes, it was a very good move, at least now we know what to do if we want to get rid of that shadow for good'' he said ''let's go inside and plan things out'' he turned his back to her to go inside, but she quickly pulled him by the arm, holding him back.

''You're not serious, right? There's no time to lose! The instructions are clear, the more we wait, the more damage the shadow will do to the memories, we can't afford any delays!'' she urged him, gripping his arm tight.

Sasuke looked at her in surprise, but knew she was right, they shouldn't waste any second now, it was time to take action.

''Fair enough. Do you know when a new nightmare will start?''

''Oh, Sasuke'' she looked at their surroundings as if scared something might show up at any second ''it's already started''.

Sasuke rose his head and inspected their surroundings too. So all of that was already one of the nightmares?

''It seems Sakura's dreams are endless now, she doesn't seem capable of waking up'' she mentioned, and Sasuke knew the reason why ''so everything we see _is_ a nightmare, even if not a specific one, we've got no time to lose''

Before Sasuke could say anything else, though, the world around them started to shake violently, Ichiraku's and all the other buildings around it getting far away as if running from then, and suddenly they were in an open field. Trees started to grow quickly from the ground and rise high in the sky, so tall that it was impossible to see their tops, and in a moment they found themselves in a forest.

''Is this..?''

''The Forest of Death, yes'' Sakura agreed, looking around nervously ''we mustn't lower our guard here! Although I can't remember things well, I have this bad feeling, I know danger lurks all around us''

''Let's walk around'' Sasuke decided ''I doubt the nightmare will come to us, so we should try to figure out what it is and how to stop it''

Sakura got closer to Sasuke, walking right behind him, a fearsome expression all over her face.

''They probably know we're here, I actually think they will come to us very soon'' she commented, looking around her with distress.

As if summoned by her words, suddenly tree branches started to quickly grow beneath their feet until they were so high they couldn't see the ground anymore. Sasuke's sharp reflexes saved him as suddenly a long neck charged against him, aiming to bite him in the neck. Jumping back until he was on a safe spot and could get a better look at the situation, he confirmed his suspicions: standing on another branch, a few meters from him, was Orochimaru, sticking out his snake tongue as if he was finding all that situation very pleasant.

''Stand back'' Sasuke instructed, gently pushing the frightened girl next to him behind him.

The man with snake's eyes stared at him maliciously and then prepared his first attack, boosting forward in the Uchiha's direction.

Sasuke didn't know exactly what needed to be done if he wanted to win. He knew from the first nightmare he had faced there that it was never as simple as defeating the enemies like he did in the real world, simply cutting through them. There should be a way out, and he had to find it quick.

Sasuke thought to himself that the Orochimaru he was fighting in this dream seemed far more powerful than the Orochimaru he knew really was, and he found himself struggling to be able to fight him. After what seemed like very long minutes fighting his old sensei, Sasuke finally managed to catch him with the dark flames of Amaterasu, his red eyes carefully watching as the man tried to stop the flame from harming him, but to no avail. His laugh was overlapping his cries of pain, and Sasuke found that vision quite sinister.

''Now _that's_ disgusting!'' the young Sakura commented, approaching Sasuke again and holding him lightly by his clothes, peeking from behind him and then stepping further to watch closer.

Slowly, Orochimaru's skin started to melt like wax, his figure deforming until it was a strange puddle on the ground.

Sasuke dared not move, the hair on the back of his neck standing up even though he wasn't sure why. He didn't get the chance to act when the next sequence of events happened, so fast that all he could do was to watch, helplessly:

From the puddle made after Orochimaru's skin melted, a snake suddenly jumped, charging in an impressive speed at the young Sakura, who released a high pitched scream of fear. But the attack never reached her: a projection of Sasuke's younger self suddenly appeared in front of her, pushing her to the side and taking the attack on her behalf, getting bitten on the neck by the white snake. Sasuke merely watched as his younger version started to contort himself, screaming in pain, the young Sakura's eyes widened in shock as she crawled away from him, black and purple shadows emerging from his body as he held his head in pain and screamed.

''Sasuke, I think we have a problem!'' she cried out, not daring to avert her eyes from the young boy in front of her.

Quickly, Sasuke moved closer to her and took her in his arms, jumping back until they were in a safe spot, staring at the young Uchiha boy who screamed while the marks of the Cursed Seal started to spread over his body and a dark, evil energy encircled him. With a final cry of suffering, the boy released a big, strong wave of dark energy, his chakra increasing exponentially, shaking all the trees around them as if trying to repel everything that surrounded him. In the middle of his chest, a bright red crystal shone, a few dark pulses of energy escaping from its corners, and for some reason, Sasuke couldn't take his eyes away from it.

''I think that's the key to stop this nightmare'' he commented to Sakura. She looked at the crystal and then back at Sasuke.

''You're kidding, right? You can't possibly get close enough to that thing to destroy it, that would be suicidal!'' she begged him ''can't you feel the energy it's emanating?! That's not an ordinary enemy, perhaps we should sit and discuss what to do before-''

''We've got no time to lose'' he interrupted, and before Sakura could say anything else, he jumped from the branch where they were standing and prepared his first attack against his younger self.

But Sasuke had to admit that fighting his younger self wasn't quite as easy as he had expected it to be, and this dream's Sasuke was definitely far more powerful than Sasuke had really been back when we was that young. And that Sasuke seemed to have realised that Sasuke's attacks were aiming at his chest, at the crystal, so he was defending it with all his might: no matter how much Sasuke tried and how many jutsus he used, there was no way to hit his chest to try to strike the red crystal.

It seemed like, even though Sasuke at that age didn't know as many jutsus as he did now, his self in this dream knew far more attacks than he knew himself, in the present days, and the Uchiha thought to himself that yes, it was indeed very unfair to fight against a dream, because it would have limitless powers.

''Sasuke, this is useless!'' the young Sakura screamed, her voice muffled by the sound of the fierce battle that was going on between the two Uchihas ''you'll only exhaust yourself, come back here before you end up getting killed!'' she urged him.

Sasuke thought to himself that she was right on that, even though they had been fighting for what seemed like a very long time to him, he seemed to be getting nowhere with his attacks. He was tiring himself charging at his enemy and still he hadn't managed to lay a single hit on his younger version. And there was more: he had to worry about not being killed there, he only had this one chance, whereas his enemy not only had limitless powers and chakra, but also had nothing to lose. Direct attacks aiming at the crystal were not taking him anywhere.

If he wanted to win this, he would have to come up with something different.

''Okay, Sakura, get ready!'' he shouted at her and she gave him a very confused look.

Having made up his mind, he charged one last time against his enemy, provoking him enough to make him get prepared to release another powerful attack against him. But before the attack was released, Sasuke quickly used his Sharingan to swap places with Sakura, so she was now the aim that was going to receive the blast while he retreated to a safe spot behind some trees.

The young Sasuke managed to stop the attack one second before it would be too late and he would harm her by accident.

 _This is my chance!_

Just as he was staring at her with wide eyes, making sure she was alright, Sasuke boosted closer to him from behind and wrapped both arms around his chest, just like Sakura had done to him all those years ago. Except he had Kusanagi held tight on his right hand, and while still holding him from behind tightly, he struck the crystal on his chest with the sword, shattering it in one thousand pieces.

The young Sasuke was paralysed. Slowly, he started to dismantle like burnt paper until there were just ashes where he once had been. Their surroundings started to turn black and white and dismantle too, turning into millions of black fragments that rose in the sky until all their surroundings became white, like everything had been erased. As if in a painting, things started to appear in from of them again, and they found themselves back in front of Ichiraku's, where they had been taken from earlier.

''Yeah let's just use this poor girl as bait, why not?'' she complained, coming closer to him and crossing her arms.

''Desperate times call for desperate measures'' he defended himself ''we did it, that's what matters''

She sighed and then opened a smile to him.

''Yes, we did!'' she raised a hand to high five with Sasuke, but he only looked to the other side with a small smile on his face, leaving her hanging ''Well, one less to go'' she said, lowering herself to the ground. It was only at that moment that Sasuke noticed that there were fragments of the crystal on the ground, right next to his feet. Sakura's eyes were full of worry when she picked up the fragments.

''I believe each nightmare from now on will be like this, Sasuke'' she started ''there are two parts, we must solve the first one to reveal the location of the crystal and then destroy it''

Sasuke carefully took the fragments from her hand.

''Do you remember how it emanated dark energy? Each of these crystals must be a part of that Shadow that it left behind to create the nightmare'' she continued ''it must get weaker each time we destroy one of them, until we destroy the last one and it gets weak enough for us to find it and kill it for good!''

Sasuke nodded.

''But one thing doesn't fit: there was no crystal on the first nightmare we faced, back on my first time here''

''That's because the shadow wasn't free back then. It had some influence over the dreams and the nightmares, but now it has full control over them, they all have a part of it and it can feed itself from the nightmares now, all through this little crystal'' she explained, looking uneasily at the crystal fragments in his hand ''but having these fragments is good. These things are always attracted back to what created them, it will lead us to where we have to be now''

Having said that, she took the fragments back and raised them in front of her, closing her eyes.

The fragments started to shine in her hand and in a moment one of the memories - a very dark and ugly one - started to shine brighter, as if being called by the fragments.

''Are you ready?'' she asked him.

''Let's do this''

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Suuuuup!

Imma be honest, I wasn't going to post this chapter today because I'm not very sure of it hahahah I'm sick so I feel like it didn't really turn out like I expected, but I don't know xD School has been terribly dull so I don't have much free time to write anymore ),: I even have a test on Monday and I still need to start studying for it, but I really wanted to write more of this story heheheh

Anyway, now replying to my beloved guests!

\- dimension girl: THANK YOOOUUUUU! I'm so happy you are having a good time reading this so far! Sorry it took me so long to post a new chapter ;-; did you like it? What do you think will happen next? I hope to see you here again soon! Big hugs!

\- monsuno power: Hahahahha that's fine, please don't apologize! I'm glad you liked that chapter I hope you like this one too! You are too smart, booooyyy! You're gonna guess the whole plot right! Hahahahahahhahahaha Please let me know what you think about this new chapter! Big hugs!

\- Bleach power: Yeaaah Sakura suffered so much because of him, he'd better finally understand everything she did for him and stop taking her for granted! AND YES IT CAME FROM KNIGHT + NIGHTMARES AND I WAS LIKE MUAHAHA I'M GONNA NAME THIS STORY KNIGHTMARES CAUSE WHY NOT HAHAHAHAHAHAH I hope you had a good time reading this chapter! Please let me know what you think! Big hugs!

That's it everyoneeeeeee! I haven't even started the next chapter yet so it might take a little while until I post it, please don't kill me ;-; Kill my school instead hahahahaah

BIG HUGSSSSS!

.

Blackfan Diamond


	7. Fears

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CHAPTER 6: FEARS

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Sasuke found himself alone when his vision was clear enough again for him to be able to see the place he was now.

Glancing around, he found the place both familiar and strange at the same place. He was sure he'd been there before, but it didn't look like a place he judged important enough to mark his memory. He wondered what had happened to Sakura in that specific place that could be transformed into a nightmare.

Trees were vast in that place, and although at first sight everything seemed calm and peaceful, Sasuke felt some uneasiness standing in that place. Everything was just _too calm_.

Close to the trees where he was standing, there was a suspension bridge, linking two lands separated by a deep depression. He looked around and tried to sense the presence of the young Sakura, but because she had no chakra it was impossible to track her.

Then, he sensed movement coming from his side of the bridge, and soon after quick steps could be heard, coming straight to his direction.

''SASUKE, RUN!'' the young Sakura screamed, running past him in full speed and grabbing his arm to pull him to cross the bridge.

An enormous explosion was heard, the heat it emanated so strong that Sasuke could feel his most superficial layer of skin being burnt. The rope on the side of the bridge from which they were running away from gave in the next second the bridge started to fall, taking both of them down with it. Sakura yelled loudly in fear and Sasuke quickly released the Cursed Seal's wings, stopping their fall just before they hit a large piece of wood from the bridge.

They landed on the same side they had run from, just because it was obvious that Sasuke had job to do on that side. Sakura, though, wasn't very eager to return to the source of the explosion.

''I don't want to go back there! We felt the explosion from here, what could possibly happen if we are anywhere close when another one happens?!'' she shouted, suddenly all the environment around them seemed noisy just like in a battleground, and Sasuke had to try his best to maintain his focus.

''What exactly did you see there?'' he asked her.

Just as Sakura opened her mouth to reply, though, they heard the sound of a loud roar and some trees started to be thrown from the exact same spot from which Sakura had come running from.

''Well maybe you should go and look for yourself then'' she said, looking at that direction with a frightened expression.

Sasuke didn't waste any other second and rushed to that direction, running until he reached the source of the explosion: a few meters ahead of him, in the middle of a field with burnt grass around him, was Naruto. Right behind him, one tail was moving violently.

 _Just wonderful_ , he thought to himself.

The world around him had been painted red, and bubbles were coming from the ground and rising up to the sky. Every tree became dark and leafless, and suddenly it felt like all life had been drained from that place. The only sound to be heard were Naruto's growling, the bubbles surging from the ground and the wind howling.

Before Sasuke had time to think or say anything else, the figure before him released a loud scream and boosted in his direction, sharp claws aiming at his neck. He blocked every attack, feeling the heat emanating from Naruto's skin almost burning his own when he was close. He noticed that during sometimes while they were fighting, fast images showed up around him, a flash so fast that he couldn't really picture what they were.

After long minutes battling, Sasuke finally managed to attack Naruto strongly enough for him to lay on the ground, still. His last attack with Chidori had been so strong he felt his chakra waver slightly. Which was not good, he thought to himself, there was still much left to be done.

''I like this sound'' Sasuke smirked as Naruto shrieked, showing the first phase of the nightmare was over. A dark, black and red sphere was formed around Naruto and it was beating like a heart, getting bigger by the instant.

''Hide yourself!'' Sasuke commanded to the young Sakura. She didn't need any more incentive and quickly fled to hide in the woods, somewhere she could still watch the fight, but at a safe distance.

A big explosion happened, and had Sasuke not protected himself with Susanoo, his skin would surely have been left with second-degree burns. The dark smoke made it hard for anyone to see what was going on inside it, but Sasuke had not only the Sharingan, but also the Rinnegan. There was nothing those eyes couldn't see.

From behind Naruto, four tails could now be seen, his skin taken by red and black colors and his features from before completely unrecognizable. On his forehead, the crystal shone in a brighter tone of red.

Sasuke did what he was used to doing, of course, cut through his problems. This time, though, just like on the previous nightmare, that didn't work. The problem here, however, was different: Naruto would be hit by his attacks and growl in anger, but that was pretty much everything Sasuke's jutsus were doing to him: angering him. They didn't seem to hold any effect in them in any other way, he was as strong as before and not even slightly more hurt.

After a while, Sasuke finally convinced himself that his attacks were causing no damage at all on him, and that endlessly attacking an enemy in which his attacks caused no harm wasn't the smartest thing to do.

A flash appeared quickly on his right and this time he forced his sharingan to see what it was better. It looked like a memory. It was Naruto younger, at the academy, trying to prank the professor by placing a board eraser on the door in hopes it would fall on the professor's head once he opened it. Sakura was on her seat pretending to find that ridiculous, but inwardly feeling amused by that kid's audacity and actually finding his plan quite funny.

 _What is that?_ Sasuke asked himself.

When Naruto attacked him again, he was forced to retreat and attack him with Chidori once again to put some distance between them so he could think. This time, though, the attack threw Naruto many meters away, a small crack appearing on the crystal on his forehead.

Sasuke widened his eyes and realised he was on the same spot as the memory he had seen was, the images he had seen appearing around him. Sasuke thought about it for a moment. Naruto became Sakura's nightmare because the rage that made him release the 4 tails were too different from his usual behavior, from the Naruto she knew. She was afraid of him because he wasn't the Naruto she thought of like her best friend and brother. Those memories were Sakura's happy moments with Naruto, things that reminded her of the real Naruto, that's why they held such strong feelings. And such strong power too. The only way to stop the fear of this Naruto was to use the real, bubbly, sometimes stupid, one.

Sasuke smirked. He knew what to do.

After that, he tried his best to stand where each and every happy memory of Naruto was, attacking the 4-tailed-Naruto with everything he could, feeling his chakra, his energy and his will be replenished by the good memories.

When he finally reached the last one, a day both of them were laughing loudly at Ichiraku's and telling jokes, Naruto smiling widely at Sakura as she lightly punched him on the shoulder, he felt something different on his Chidori. Looking down at his hand, he saw the element of wind was also there, a Rasengan being formed. He looked to his right and saw Naruto's memory standing right next to him, his figure white like a ghost, but his smile warm and true, eyes filled with determination.

 _''Bring her back, Sasuke.''_

Sasuke aimed ahead and the jutsu pierced through the crystal, destroying it.

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''You did it!'' Sakura skipped on his direction ''I must say I was actually worried this time, especially because your attacks weren't harming Naruto in the slightest''

''Thank you for putting so much faith in me'' he ironized, picking up the crystal pieces that were left on the ground.

''You're welcome!'' she replied, taking the crystals from his hand ''we've got no time to lose, can we go?''

As soon as Sasuke nodded in agreement, Sakura used the crystals, and Sasuke felt their bodies being teleported again.

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The place where they landed gave Sasuke a feeling of uneasiness. It was like a big cave, rocks all around them and some parts of the floor were wet.

''Oh man'' Sakura said, drawing Sasuke's attention to her.

''What is it?''

Sakura didn't reply, but she made a face and brought her hand to a region of her belly Sasuke was well familiarized with. He had asked Sakura many times about that day, the day he almost lost her. Sakura had always insisted in saying it had been nothing and that she had had everything under control, but he just didn't buy it. Also, Sakura was a very, very skillful medic-nin, but still she kept that scar that could easily be removed by a single movement of her hands. Which could only mean to Sasuke that it meant something to her, it was a strong memory. He felt agitated by the thought of finally understanding some parts of what had happened that day.

Some of the rocks on the other side of the cave broke and from them emerged a red-haired shinobi, wearing the robe which belonged to the Akatsuki.

''You know what to do'' Sasuke told the young Sakura.

''Run and hide, gotcha'' she replied, turning her back to Sasuke and running away from the fight that was going to start.

Sasori boosted against Sasuke in full speed, attacking him with many of his puppets. Sasuke dodged the attacks and used Kusanagi with chakra on it to cut through the chakra strings that connected the puppets to Sasori. Taijutsu helped him greatly in defeating most of the puppets and slowly approaching their master, who tried to escape while charging more of his dolls against the Uchiha. Using the scroll on his arm, Sasuke summoned an enormous quantity of shurikens and threw them all on the puppeteer, but Sasori skillfully dodged all of them. Before Sasori could escape again to summon more puppets, Sasuke set a trap right where he stood and used his rinnegan to switch places with his opponent, so Sasori fell right on the trap he had set. As soon as he was trapped, Sasuke grabbed Kusanagi again and the sound of Chidori made itself heard, and he attacked his foe with all he had, inwardly wanting to avenge Sakura's wound.

After a round full of attacks against Sasori, Sasuke put some distance between them, wanting to re-evaluate their position in that fight. Sasori was breathing with difficulty, holding his chest with his left hand while with the right one he held a sword.

''Do you think this is over, boy?'' he said, half his face deformed by the attacks Sasuke had aimed towards him.

Sasuke felt a chill run through his spine, but tried not to let it show.

Sasori bit his thumb and used a summoning jutsu to bring two coffins to his side, and with a side smile, he opened them. Sasuke waited patiently, eyes examining his every move with caution. From inside the two coffins, two bodies arose, and Sasuke's eyes widened. It was them. Naruto and Sasuke. Their bodies were hurt, with holes on their chests where their hearts once were, and they looked so real, so like real corpses, that Sasuke felt ill to look at them.

In a moment, Sasori summoned more coffins, and from each and every one of them came people that Sakura held dear, all looking like they had horrible deaths, their bodies looking real corpses, some with worms wandering through them, some missing an eye, with large wounds or even with parts of their bodies missing.

From inside Naruto's belly and Sasuke's eyes, there was a familiar red glow.

Sasuke tried his best to fight them, but it looked like even though he charged his most powerful attacks towards his enemies, all the puppets were immune to his attacks.

When one of Naruto's Rasengans stroke him on his chest and he fell on his back many meters away from the corpses he was fighting - and among the ones he had already defeated, which he found disturbing - he decided it was time to stop attacking and start thinking.

When he looked around to see what could be the key to that one nightmare, he noticed something that he hadn't noticed before: it was a puppet, laying on the ground far behind him, on the opposite side of Sasori. But not just any puppet, that one looked exactly like Sakura, and it wasn't in possession of Sasori.

Sasuke dodged the next few attacks Sasori aimed at him and ran towards the puppet, his fingers automatically releasing strings that connected to Sakura's puppet and giving her life. Sasuke noticed then that whatever movement he did with his own body were mimicked by the doll.

He smirked and charged against his foes again, this time his attacks effectively causing much damage on them.

He killed - if one can actually kill corpses! - all the puppets he could, leaving his own and Naruto's to the end. He didn't notice, though, that those weren't among them anymore, they were gone, and when he was almost killing the last of the corpses, he felt a sword piercing through his own belly. He looked back to find Sasuke and Naruto holding Kusanagi tight against his chest, but he himself felt no pain. The Sakura's puppet though, screamed of pain as if it was alive, and it fell on the ground.

''With no Sakura, there's no way you can harm us'' he heard Sasori's voice echo in the cave, though the place turned so dark suddenly that even with his powerful eyes he couldn't picture where the voice was coming from. He ran let Chidori run through his body, and even though that didn't harm the puppets in the slightest, it at least served to make them retreat a few meters so Sasuke could run in the direction of Sakura's puppet.

When he approached her, though, pink hair started to turn red and when he turned the puppet around, Sasori was smiling at him.

''Boo!'' he said, and then pierced Sasuke's belly with the sword he was holding on his right hand. This time, Sasuke felt the pain.

Sasuke clenched his teeth and retreated, watching as his blood spilled on the ground beneath his feet. The surroundings became clear again and he realized Sakura's puppet was nowhere to be found.

''Now, there's no way you can harm me'' Sasori's wide, maniac eyes were glaring straight at Sasuke as he charged against him again, and this time there was nothing Sasuke could do but to try his best to avoid being hit by any of his attacks. Every attempt of his to try to strike Sasori was useless, he couldn't fight him by himself, and Sakura's puppet was gone. He was done for.

Then he saw a glimpse of pink from the corner of his eye. It was the young Sakura, hiding behind some rocks.

If only Sakura could hurt him, then so be it.

Sasuke retreated so he was out of Sasori's reach, then threw a Kunai on Sakura's direction. Just before it hit her, he used his rinnegan to change her place with the kunai's, and she was thrown on his lap, his arms wrapping around her to absorb the impact so she wouldn't get hurt.

''Hey!'' she protested, but he didn't pay attention. Quickly, he made the same moves he had done previously and from his fingers strings showed up, making their way to Sakura's direction until they were connected to her joints just like they had been to the puppet ''What are you doing?!''

Sasuke got ready to attack and Sakura's body followed. He charged against the only two puppets left, dodging their attacks and getting closer and closer. When he was close enough, he charged himself against them, preparing to attack Sasuke's chest, but right when the puppet prepared to defend his chest, he switched places with Sakura and she craved two kunais in his eyes, breaking the crystals inside them. Sasuke didn't waste another second and quickly charged against Naruto with Sakura's body, despite her complaints, and after a few blocks and hits with taijutsu, he finally managed to get close enough to strike him on the stomach. The crystal broke at the same instant in which Sasori screamed loudly in anger and his own heart started to pump, exposed on his chest, and a red crystal shone from inside it.

Sasuke attacked him mercilessly through Sakura's body, then when Sasori almost hit her, Sasuke let go of her body and started to attack him himself.

Sasori smirked as he prepared a final blow on Sasuke, but he never managed to hit him.

Blood came from his mouth as the crystal started to break in his chest. He turned around just to see Sasuke and Sakura behind him, Sasuke holding Sakura's hands and her hands holding Kusanagi, the blade craving against his chest from behind, piercing right through the crystal. The Sasuke in front of him, who he was fighting, was gone as the clone was dismissed.

Sasori shrieked and then his body dismantled.

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''That was close'' the young Sakura commented as she took some steps back, handing Sasuke his blade again and looking in shock at the place where Sasori stood a second ago.

''Yes'' he agreed.

Suddenly, the place around them started to dismantle like pieces of glass being vaporized. From the furthest place from them to their feet, everything turned black and white and then quickly started to disappear.

''Let's get this done then, we can't waste any more time'' Sakura said, uneasy. She grabbed the fragments of the crystal on the floor, cleaned them a bit with her hands and raised them in front of her.

The world started to twirl and on the next second, they were back at the place from where they first came: the Dream World itself.

''Is it here?'' Sasuke asked, raising an eyebrow.

Sakura looked back at the crystal with a confused expression and tried lifting the crystals again, but nothing happened.

Sasuke waited patiently while she tried again and again, but decided to stop her when she came to the point of biting the fragments to try to make them work.

''Why is it not working?''

''I don't know… But this is bad, Sasuke'' her voice was full of fear.

''You mean we can't reach the nightmares anymore?''

Sakura shook her head.

''The brain is connected, so are the memories. If we choose the right paths, we can certainly get to whatever dream we want to reach. All nightmares are here, in this world, somewhere, but it seems like we'll have to find them on our own now''

Sasuke clenched his jaw.

This was probably the shadow's doing. They would waste far more time if they had to reach each and every nightmare all by themselves all the time.

''Do we have at least a clue of how to find them?'' he finally asked, trying not to feel defeated. Sakura needed him, and he would never fail her.

Sakura nodded and looked determined ahead.

''The crystal is still attracted to others of the same kind, so if we hold it high like this…'' she rose her hand high and suddenly a straight red light started came from the fragments, pointing south.

''That's a start'' Sasuke said, looking determined to the direction they were headed ''let's go''

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* * *

OKAY I'M SORRY I'VE BEEN GONE

SCHOOL HAS JUST BEEN SUPER HARD AND I'VE BEEN SUPER SUPER SUPER BUSY

But I'll try to write more as soon as I can (I wrote this entire chapter today, meaning I can do it if I try hard enough! I just need inspirationnnnnn)

But anyway

Thank you very much for reading! S2

And now replying to my awesome guests:

\- monsuno power: Thank youuuuuuuu! I'm trying hard at school but it's just so difficultttttt! ),: I'll do my best to most more chapter soon!

\- Bleach power: Are you two brothers? Hahahahaa OMG I JUST CAN'T DEAL WITH YOU TWO, YOU'RE TOO CUTE AND AWESOME! I can't say much more because I'm afraid I'll give you spoilers hehehehe Hope you enjoy this chapter !

That's it, boissssss

Thank you for reading!

Big hugs!

.

Blackfan Diamond


	8. Hidden Messages

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CHAPTER 7: HIDDEN MESSAGES

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It didn't take long until they found themselves in a crossroad.

''Where should we head now?'' Sasuke asked

The young Sakura frowned

''It's pointing to the middle'' she said ''I think the only way to find out is trying one of the paths''

Sasuke sighted, now _this_ was a waste of time

''Let's go left then''

''Wow, wow, wait'' she grabbed his arm

''What is it?''

''You've never played those games in which you must make choices? You can't choose like this!''

''Sakura, one board says 'this way' and the other says 'yeah, it's that way', there isn't much to think here''

''Exactly, we should go that way''

''No, we should go the opposite way, it's always like that'' he retorted ''it's never what it seems''

''But Sakura is right-handed!'' she cried out

Sasuke gave her a puzzled look

''And that is relevant now because...?''

''It means the right path is probably the right one''

Sasuke sighed, it was pointless to argue with her

''Let's just go right then''

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Soon ahead, they found a small village. It was raining and everyone had an umbrella, walking slowly. Their faces were unrecognisable, only blurred images. A wooden board said ''Tears Village: watch out for the tears falling''. There was a visible line on the floor dividing where it was raining and where it wasn't

''What is this?'' Sasuke asked

''The Tears Village'' Sakura replied simply, receiving an annoyed look from Sasuke ''what?''

''I can read''

''Oh well then why did you ask?''

Sasuke rolled his eyes and stepped on the other side of the line that divided the area without rain and the area raining. Then he felt his skin burn and he quickly stepped back.

''Oh, yeah'' Sakura brought a finger to her mouth ''tears are very, very salty. If one touches you, your skin will automatically dehydrate'' she explained ''it's called osmosis, if you want to know''

He gave her an angry look

''You could have said that a little earlier''

She shrugged

''I just came to this conclusion''

Sasuke looked around them. They had to cross the village, there was no other way to reach the other side, and the crystal was pointing that way.

He bit his lower lip

Then, Sasuke hugged Sakura tight with one arm, keeping her close

''Hey what are you doing?'' she protested, but he didn't pay attention

''Just stay close'' he instructed

With his right hand, he took a few kunais and got them ready.

Right after throwing one kunai on the floor right next to the place where one of the people moved, he used his rinnegan to swap places between them and the weapon, making them land right next to the place where the person was, protected by the umbrella. Not wasting any second, he hurried to throw another one, then another, then another, and teleporting both himself and Sakura next to him, each time landing right under one of the umbrellas, until they reached the other side of the village.

''I must say, you're much more clever than I'd thought'' Sakura said, and the tone in her voice didn't make it clear to Sasuke if she was praising him or not. Therefore, he decided against replying to that.

''C'mon, let's move on''

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Sasuke couldn't help but to worry about Sakura's state of mind as they walked through the dream world: everything was horrible there - perhaps due to the shadow's interference, but even so…

He thought probably one of the most horrifying part was when they were walking through a completely white part of the dream world, and people dressed with doctor's coats walked past dying patients choosing which to help, depending on their chances of surviving. The only thing that made the place less _white_ was the deep red of blood on the patients bodies as they cried for help.

''Don't look at them'' the young Sakura instructed ''keep walking as if they were not here''

Sasuke found that all very odd

''If you stare at them for too long, you'll get lost in this place forever, just keep moving''

Sasuke wondered what that meant, in Sakura's mind. That scene was indeed horrible.

Soon after that, though, they reached a dead end. Literally. There was nothing more ahead of them, only a blank space.

''Watch out!'' Sakura stopped him before he took another step and fell. There was nothing to step on, the world in front of them was completely blank. Far ahead of them, there was a desert, but there was no way of crossing the white area, they couldn't step on it without falling.

''What now?'' he asked her

Sakura considered it for a moment

''Perhaps he should go back and try going left on that crossroad?'' she gave him a forced smile, rubbing her neck

Sasuke rolled his eyes and looked around. There must be something for them to do, the Dream World didn't work like that. A few meters behind him, close to a tree - where there were still things on the World - he saw a sketch book and a box full of pencils. On the drawing there was one of those games in which they had to cross a labyrinth with the pencil to reach the other side and get the prize. Sakura had drawn herself on one end and Sasuke on the other one. The Uchiha frowned.

He took the box of pencils on the floor and came back to the edge of the Dream World, taking one of the pencils and kneeling on the ground. Just as he drew the first small line, it became much bigger, in a larger scale than the small line he actually had draw. He drew a parallel line next to it and painted the middle with another color, making a path.

''You're a genius!'' Sakura celebrated, rushing ahead. Just as she reached the end of the path though, another one was drawn, diverging the straight path to the side ''hey why did you do this? Just make a straight line to the other side!''

''I didn't draw that''

Sasuke then realised that for every path he drew, the World drew another one, trying to stop their progress ahead.

 _This won't be easy_

When they were almost halfway to the other side, the World drew a line that intercepted completely their way, blocking it, and they had to go back to the beginning and start another path - because they couldn't cross when a line was right in front of them.

After a moment, Sasuke realised that it was useless. It didn't matter how much progress they made, at some point the world would put a dead end in front of them and there would be nothing for them to do except going back to the beginning and starting anew.

Sasuke then decided to draw one single line, watching as the World drew another one to intercept it. But he didn't draw a parallel line, in order to finish the path, he continued to draw one single line - having to go around every line that tried to block his way - until he finally he made it to the other side.

Then, without taking the pencil from the floor not even once, he drew a parallel line to the line he had drawn, not giving the World its turn to draw, until he finally completed the path.

Sasuke's lips turned into a triumphant smile

''Let's go!'' he determined, taking the young Sakura by the arm.

Just as they stepped on the path though, the path right behind them started to fall, and they had to run to reach the other side before the path behind them was completely destroyed.

When they reached the other side and looked back, it was as it had been before they started to draw: only a blank space.

''C'mon'' he called the young Sakura, making his way to the desert.

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The desert they were crossing was quite familiar to Sasuke, and he soon realised where they were when he saw the entrance to the hideout he had called his home for long years.

No, he corrected himself, that place had never been a home to him.

''Orochimaru's hideout, huh?'' Sakura commented when they stopped in front of the entrance. She took the fragments of crystal and they shone brightly, indicating they were at the right place ''it's here, Sasuke. Would you like me to come inside with you?''

He shook his head

''You wait here. I'll come back with the next crystal soon'' he said confidently.

Then slowly, he paced inside.

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The first thing Sasuke noticed when he was walking through the first corridor, was that it was of a bright color, and as soon as he reached a crossroad he stopped: the floor wasn't bright there.

 _There must be something with this floor that is different_

As he suspected, as soon as he stepped out of the bright floor, the world around him started to shake and it turned reddish. A very fast and horrifying song started to play and he felt the urge to hurry out of a sudden. He started to run through the corridors without really knowing where he was headed, feeling hurried by the fast song that was getting faster and faster, making his heart race in expectation, as if something terrible would happen when it ended.

He stopped only when he noticed that from one of the corridors a monster was standing - one of Orochimaru's experiments, no doubt - and when it spotted the Uchiha it released a loud shriek and started to run in his direction, obliging Sasuke to come back from where he'd come from.

When he finally decided it was useless to run and decided to face the experiment, concentrating Chidori on his right hand, he understood his mistake. There was no way of killing those experiments, and as soon as his chidori reached it, Sasuke was teleported back to the entrance.

 _What the…?_

Being an Uchiha, it took Sasuke one more stubborn try before he was convinced that he couldn't in fact touch in any way the experiments, otherwise he would be teleported to the entrance again. This only made things harder because whenever he stepped outside from the glowing corridor, many experiments would show up and one seemed able to call the rest of them as soon as it spotted the Uchiha on one of the corridors, making it impossible for Sasuke to avoid them all and keep running. Not only that, but that fast song was really messing with his normally great self-control.

After a few more tries, Sasuke decided to stop and think.

Well, if they would call the rest of the experiments at the very sight of Sasuke, the only thing left for him to do was to try to trick them into following the wrong Sasuke.

Having thought that, he used Kage Bushin no Jutsu to summon 5 other Sasukes, and together they started to run through the corridors.

Although he didn't succeed on his first try, when Sasuke came back to the beginning with his bushins, he got all of their memories, meaning he was getting familiarised with the labyrinth and soon learned the exact path he had to take in order to reach what he decided was the place he must head to.

Inhaling deeply, he ran again with his clones through the corridors.

While the clones were keeping the experiments busy, he ran straight to the path he knew would lead him to the one door in that whole labyrinth: one with the Uchiha symbol above it.

Just as he was on the right corridor, though, he bumped into an experiment: an old man, too old to be able to follow the others as they ran through the clones. It was an inch that saved Sasuke from touching it.

After a second staring at each other - Sasuke in shock and the old man confused -, the old experiment decided that was the real Sasuke and released a terribly loud sound. Looking back, Sasuke saw that many, many experiments were coming from the corridor on his direction, and there was no way out but ahead.

Passing through the old experiment quickly, he ran for dear life, the experiments getting closer and closer, until he saw that the corridor right in front of the room was also shining bright. He ran as fast as he could and stepped on the bright corridor just as one experiment was about to touch his back.

The experiments were repelled by an invisible barrier that came from the ground, and only Sasuke could step on it, protecting him.

''Phew'' he said to himself, his heart racing as he leaned on the wall to rest for a moment.

Then the room's door opened slightly and he decided it was time for him to face the 5th nightmare.

.

.

.

At first, it was all dark inside the room. Sasuke had to try hard to adapt his vision.

Then suddenly the Uchiha symbol started to be drawn on the wall, shining bright, and right below it a figure was kneeling. Sasuke unsheathed his sword and waited.

Then the figure turned around and Sasuke gasped:

It was him, but… it also wasn't. It was like an experiment had been made with his body, and he had become a big monster, with only a few of his old features, making it possible to recognise him as Sasuke despite the monstrous form that took over his body.

Sasuke wasted no time and started to attack the monster in front of him mercilessly, but to no avail. No attack of his seemed to cause any effect on his foe. When he was getting tired of trying the same thing and not get anywhere, he felt something in his pocket: it was a part of the previous crystal. For some reason, it shone less close to the monster and brighter when he was close to the wall. When he looked up, he saw that the red in the Uchiha symbol was shining brighter than it normally did.

 _There it is_

But the monster seemed determined not to let Sasuke lay a single hit on the Uchiha crest on the wall, and kept attacking him with all its might.

Sasuke learned soon that he couldn't attack the _normal_ part of the monster's body, otherwise more monstrous limbs would grow, but he could attack the deformed part and weaken the experiment, though only temporary. And so he did.

Sasuke attacked the monster with all he could and, when it was weak enough not to disturb him, he aimed at the crystal behind the Uchiha symbol, until the monster regained its strength to attack again. He repeated the same process until at last the crystal broke into many fragments, the monster growling in pain before dismantling on the floor. Outside of the room, he heard the loud cry of all the other experiments dying too.

''I can't wait for this to be over with'' he said to himself as he watched the fragments on the floor.

From somewhere above him, he heard a loud cry of pain and frustration, the sound of the Shadow.

 _You just wait. I'm coming for you_

.

.

.

''Sasuke!'' the young Sakura greeted him when he stepped out of the labyrinth ''you did it!''

He nodded, smiling at her in relief.

''Can I have the crystal?'' she asked, and he gave her the fragments he had gathered from the last nightmare. The crystals on her hand started to glow and she smiled ''we're lucky! Seems like the next nightmare is quite close from here, we just need to cross one place before we're there!''

''Let's not waste any more time then, let's go'' Sasuke determined.

.

.

.

''What the hell'' Sasuke looked at the circus with things on fire in front of them with a surprised look

That place looked familiar to him, it was the same circus that came to Konoha each Summer. Every child in Konoha had spent at least one day playing in the toys there, but never in all of them - there were just too many! It would take almost three weeks each time for the workers to build the structure every time they went to Konoha, so big the circus was, and Sakura had missed not a single detail when she dreamed of it. Sasuke remembered the children playing there while he watched from the distance, not allowing himself to even try to have fun since his family had been massacred.

When a few children bumped into him when they were running to another toy, he noticed they had no face. There were bodies, a head and even hair, but their faces were a black mist, and their laughter echoed everywhere.

''Kinda creepy, right'' Sakura voiced her thoughts ''I remember having good dreams in this place, we used to sing 'Hauru and Sora' and play a bunch here, it was great'' she reminisced

Without thinking, she started to sing:

 _Hauru and Sora left to find sweets_

 _Everyone told them to follow a few tips_

 _''Do as we say, don't use your own wits!''_

''I suppose all we have to do is cross this place?'' he asked

Sakura hummed a few longer before stopping to think. She took the crystal from her pocket

''We must go that way'' she said, resuming her walk with caution, as if that place uneased her

Soon after, they had to stop: one of the water toys had its water replaced by lava and it was impossible to cross. Sasuke noticed that in the air a few birds were flying, but not moving a single centimeter: they were just flapping their wings but not moving an inch.

What he found the most awkward, though, was that there were traffic lights on the other side of the lava lake, and they were all red, as if saying they shouldn't try to cross. Of course, he didn't get burnt.

What now?

As he kept thinking, one hand on his mouth as he thought hard, the young Sakura kept humming and dancing to the song in her head. Then suddenly, she started to jump and the lights on the other side turned green, rocks emerging from the lava and making two paths that would take them to the other side safely.

Before Sasuke could make any move, though, the lights turned yellow and suddenly red again, making the stones melt and the path disappear.

''Do that again!'' he urged her

''I don't know what I did, I was just dancing to the song!'' she retorted, confused

''Then dance again, let's see''

The young Sakura made a face, probably because Sasuke watched her closely as she danced, then when she started to jump the lights turned green again.

''It seems like jumping is the key to opening the path'' he said ''I'll try to cross it, you keep jumping here''

''Are you craz-'' but before she could finish her sentence, Sasuke started to jump on the rocks, but the lights turned yellow too fast and he had he not been lucky that he was close enough to where he'd come from, his rinnegan wouldn't have been able to save him.

''Close'' he said

''Close to _dying_ you must be meaning'' she looked at him in shock ''do you have a death wish?''

''We must cross this, no matter what!'' he reckoned

After a few moments of silence, both lost in their own thoughts, Sasuke looked up at the birds in the sky and finally said

''Let's try again''

Sakura rolled her eyes, but said nothing. It was impossible to argue with him.

This time, he was fast enough to reach almost half way, then before the lights turned yellow he positioned himself under one of the birds and, just as it turned yellow, he jumped and held himself on its legs, the bird not even wavering with the new weight.

''Jump again!'' he instructed, and the young Sakura quickly obeyed

When the rocks appeared again, he let go of the bird and rushed ahead again, but when he was going to do the same thing again, just as he stepped on of the rocks the bird atop of him exploded.

The lights turned yellow.

 _Shit_

He sprinted back and it was half a millisecond that saved him from falling on the lava.

''Now this was close'' she said ''really close''

Sasuke was lying on the floor, panting

He almost lost

''It would've worked had that bird not exploded'' he mentioned

''Why did it? You must have done something wrong, otherwise it wouldn't have done that, it's not how things work''

Saskue thought about it for a moment

''What song were you dancing to?'' he asked

Sakura was confused

''I was dancing to 'Hauru and Sora' '' she explained

''Sing me the song''

She made a displeased face, but cleared her throat and started to sing the song every child - except, it seemed, for Sasuke Uchiha - knew in Konoha.

 _Hauru and Sora left to find sweets_

 _Everyone told them to follow a few tips_

 _''Do as we say, don't use your own wits!''_

 _Jump three times when the lights go red_

 _It's the only way to move without going mad_

 _Walk on the left path, never turn right_

 _Unless you want to lose all your might_

 _The man with the yellow shirt only tells the truth_

 _Don't talk to the one in blue, he likes to trick the youth_

 _When you meet a dead end, please turn around_

 _The path to the sweets will then finally be found_

Sasuke considered it for a second

''The song tells us how to cross it, when you jump the path is revealed'' he said ''perhaps the third strophe is the key to finishing crossing it''

He got up, feeling revigorated

''Let's try one last time, you're coming with me''

''Who's gonna jump?''

Sasuke paid no attention, summoning a Kage Bushing and instructing it to jump whenever he commanded. Then he carried Sakura piggy-style and got ready.

That time, he took care not to turn right a single time, sticking to the path on the left at all times and jumping on the birds whenever the lights turned yellow.

Soon, they were on the other side.

Sasuke released a triumphant smile

''We did it''

Sakura was pale, so scared she was, but she managed to force a smile to him

''You're good, I'll give you that''

''What's the next strophe after this one, again?''

 _The man with the yellow shirt only tells the truth_

 _Don't talk to the one in blue, he likes to trick the youth_

''Piece of cake'' he said.

But when they met a crossroad again, there was only a man in a green shirt waiting, smoking a narghile.

''Can I help?'' he said as they approached

''Uhhh'' Sakura started ''Yes, can you tell us where to find someone in a yellow shirt?''

''Of I course, don't that know would such be man me''

''I beg your pardon?'' Sakura said, frowning, but the man repeated the same sentence ''Sasuke?''

Sasuke thought for a while

''Could it be he's both the man in yellow and the man in blue?'' he said

Sakura's eyes widened a bit and she looked at the green shirt

''Well, green is blue and yellow so that could be right''

Sasuke forced his Sharingan to pay good attention to the man and he noticed that, in slow motion, he could see both colors on the man's shirt: first yellow, then it turned blue, then yellow again and so on.

''Sir, would you please repeat? Can you tell us where to find someone in a yellow shirt?''

The man sighed and stopped smoking, repeating himself for the third time:

''Of I course, don't that know would such be man me''

Sasuke did his best to focus on the words said only when the color of the shirt was yellow

''Of course, that would be me'' he said aloud, looking then at the man's face.

He smiled and nodded approvingly at him, resuming his smoking.

''Which way should we go to reach the next nightmare?'' he asked

''You go should right go on left this here crossroad, afterwards then go keep downhill walking to until the you riverside see where a you fountain, will jump find on the it path and which swim will to take its you end, straight you where should you reach are the headed nightmare for then sure''

''Go right on this crossroad, then keep walking until you see a fountain, jump on it and swim to its end, you should reach the nightmare then'' Sasuke gathered

The man nodded and smiled at him again

''Thank you''

.

.

.

''There's the fountain!'' Sakura exclaimed, running ahead and taking the crystal, which was shining stronger

''There's no time to lose then'' Sasuke said, jumping on it and starting to swim downwards. There was a path that led them right there, and Sasuke took it until he reached a dead end. When he turned around to call the young Sakura, though, the place changed and suddenly he was in a tunnel, completely dry. Sakura soon appeared next to him.

''Konoha's tunnels'' she said, taking the crystal. It was shining as brightly as it had when Sasuke reached the previous nightmare ''we're here''

.

.

.

There were women and children running frightened inside the tunnel, as if escaping from something that was happening above them. Sasuke hurried outside to find they were in a completely destroyed Konoha: there were fights everywhere and explosions happening on every corner, the noise so loud it was almost deafening.

''We were waiting for you, Uchiha'' Sasuke heard a voice say. When he turned to face his enemy, he saw 6 Pains waiting for him.

''Sounds like this first part will be just ass-kicking, so I'll leave it to you'' Sakura said, patting his shoulder before running to the other side, where she judged safe.

''Let's dance then'' Sasuke said, unsheathing his sword and getting ready for battle.

It was not easy to fight 6 Pains. It was not easy to fight 12 rinnegans either.

But it's Uchiha Sasuke we're talking about, and he had someone worth fighting for. That being said, nothing else needs to be added, for nothing motivates someone as much as fighting for the one they love.

And although he'd never told her, Sasuke knew it was true:

He loved Sakura

 _One down_

Truly, deeply, madly

 _Two down_

She had bewitched him in a way he hadn't ever judged possible.

 _Three down_

And he loved her, loved her, loved her wholeheartedly

 _Four down_

And he would definitely save her

 _Five down_

Of that, he was sure

.

When Sasuke finally defeated the fifth enemy, he noticed the sixth was missing. Yahiko Pain wasn't there.

He scanned his surroundings quickly and found the last Pain fighting Naruto a few meters away from where he stood. If _fighting_ was the word that better fit there. Naruto was being beaten hardly, and not long after that, he saw the Kyuubi's chakra start to rise from inside him until at last Naruto had released most of his tails.

Sasuke didn't waste any more time and rushed to his direction, engaging on a fight with the last Pain along with Naruto - although Naruto on that form wasn't exactly the _help_ he desired, for he was too impulsive and couldn't quite differ friend from foe.

After what seemed like an eternity fighting, they defeated the last Pain, and still there was no sign of the crystal.

''There's one more'' the Naruto from the dream said before fainting next to him. Sasuke wasted no more time and went after the one in control of every other Pain: Nagato.

He found him inside a tree, half his body emerging from it, and his chest pulsing in red. He offered him no resistance as Sasuke took kusanagi and pierced his chest, breaking the crystal inside it in many small pieces.

There was the growling sound again, but this time Sasuke didn't celebrate. He was running out of chakra, the last fights had drained him way too much.

''You look terrible'' Sakura said, getting closer to him and picking up the pieces of crystal on the ground ''perhaps you should rest a little''

''We have no time to lose''

''You do realize that if you die it's over, right? There are no second chances here. If I die it's fine, I can come back because I'm from here. The nightmares can come back at any time too because the Shadow still lives. But you? If you die, it's over, Sasuke. For you and for Sakura''

Sasuke cursed and sat down next to a tree, leaning on it.

''Technically, this is a safe place now, isn't it?'' he asked

''Not like Ichiraku's, but yeah'' she replied

''How far is the next nightmare?''

Sakura consulted the crystals and shivered

''It's actually quite close''

''Let's go back to Ichiraku's and rest a bit then''

Sakura wanted to object, but Sasuke got up

''Is there an easy way back there?''

She nodded hesitantly

''I can teleport you there because it's the beginning of the dream world, but I can't take you back here, so you'll have to come back the same way we did to get here''

''You're not coming with me?''

She shook her head

''I'll wait here, it will be faster for you to come back without me and there will be nothing for me to do there anyway''

Sasuke sighed, but nodded in agreement

''Fair enough, I'll be back soon, wait for me'' he kissed her forehead

Sakura was very uncomfortable, but she managed to clear her throat

''Okay, close your eyes''

Sasuke did as he was told

When he opened them again, he was back where he had first arrived when he came to the Dream World.

.

.

.

Sasuke could already feel the warmth and security when he stepped inside Ichiraku's, his energy and chakra being replenished like a battery.

After a few moments resting and watching the fire burn, he for some reason decided to check on the note the young Sakura had written him. Perhaps there was a hint there he hadn't seen earlier.

''Let's see'' he said to himself

After so long in the Dream World, Sasuke had learned a few things, and when he forced his eyes to read the note more attentively, he saw that a few words were sticking out:

Read my next words _very carefully_ , Sasuke!

I _**don't**_ know how, but the shadow is connected to the 9 big nightmares I told you about, I know it is! It feeds itself of them, somehow. As we can't go after it, we must bring it to us! You've defeated the first one already, I'm sure you can do the same to the other nightmares so you can weaken the shadow enough to reach it and fight it!

I _**trust**_ that once you defeat all the nightmares you'll be able to defeat the shadow and prevent it from harming Sakura's mind even more, you must succeed! Use your imagination, there's always a way out of every nightmare! Find a way to solve the puzzle and finish them, these nightmares are not ordinary ones, they have the same evil energy I sensed when we met the shadow the first time. You can't cut through your problems like you usually do though, use that brain of yours and find a _solution_ to the problem faced in each nightmare!

Given _**your**_ tendency of being reckless, I think it's relevant to add that you MUST NOT DIE! And YES, YOU CAN DIE! Don't be arrogant and think that this is something you can easily solve, remember that your mind is in this world, so if something happens to you in here, your mind won't be able to go back to your body and you'll forever be trapped in the Dream World! So watch out!

My _**eyes**_ are growing weary and I fear I might not remember much to help you when you come back, so hopefully this letter will be able to guide you. We are in your hands now, don't fail us!

''Don't trust your eyes?'' he read aloud ''what did she mean by this? And why hide a message if only us both could come inside Ichiraku's and take the note? There's someone she didn't want to read this… but who?''

.

.

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* * *

Suppp, everyone!

Okay, I'm sorry I've been gone

I'm on holiday now so I'll try to write more! I wanted to bring this chapter for you soon because it's been soooooo long, so I didn't have much time to revise it (I have limited internet where I am right now so I'm typing this as fast as I can! Hahahah)

I think I really need a Beta because English is not my first language so sometimes I feel like I'm making some silly mistakes like prepositions Dx But I swear I'm trying my best!

\- monsuno power: I'M SURE YOU TWO ARE BROTHERS AAAAAAAA ! Hahahaha I hope you like this chapter, I missed youuu!

\- Bleach power: What do you think? Good chapter? I hope you like it! And you two can pm me and chat whenever you want, but you need an account for that I'm afraid ): But it's very easy to make one! I missed you, hope to see you around soon! What do you think will happen next?

I'll try to finish this story soon, we're past the half of this fic already :D

Big hugs, everyone!

.

Blackfan Diamond


	9. Regrets

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CHAPTER 8: REGRETS

.

''You're back!'' the young Sakura greeted him, getting up

''I said I wouldn't take long'' he replied, then before she could say anything else, he quickly added ''are you sure we're on the right path?''

Sakura nodded

''Yup! And I've checked everything, there should be no surprises along the way!''

''Good, let's get going then''

.

.

.

'' 'No surprises along the way' uh ?'' Sasuke mocked as they ran on the mountains. Behind them, dead patients covered in blood were following them in fast paces - too fast for zombies, Sasuke thought! - and screaming. The scene could sound funny for those watching - or reading -, but for them, it was anything but funny.

''I'M SORRY OKAY'' she replied, closing her eyes and running as fast as she could.

''This way'' he said, making a curve, trying to find cover between some of the trees. Perhaps he could make the dead patients lose track of them?

When he stepped on a specific spot on the ground, though, he suddenly started to fall.

Sasuke didn't know how long he spent falling - it sounded like an eternity - but when he finally managed to get a good look at his surroundings again, he noticed he appeared to be on what seemed an underground tunnel. More specific, a rabbit tunnel, given the amount of carrots spread all the way and making a path he deducted he should follow.

''Sakura does seem afraid of tunnels'' he said to himself

Walking the only direction he could, he couldn't help but to notice that there were giant insects inside the tunnel this time, and they looked very ugly. Sakura had always told him she wasn't very found of arthropods in general, unless they were her dinner, like crabs. He tried not to make eye contact with any of them - Sasuke wanted to avoid fighting unnecessarily as much as he could - and kept on his way until he found what looked like a living room in one of the bifurcations.

''A living room in the middle of a tunnel, typical of Sakura'' he thought to himself. There was even the painting on the wall she had insisted they bought from a few gypsies when they were in town the previous summer. The chairs, the table, the fire - yes, there was even a fire -, the carpet, and everything around him made it look like a cozy home. Perhaps a rabbit's house?

But no rabbit ever showed up. Instead, a couple of canaries appeared, holding each other's wings like a couple would hold hands.

''Hello, stranger!'' he greeted Sasuke

''…''

''Perhaps he can't talk?'' the female canary said, looking at him with pity

''I'm Uchiha Sasuke, and I- ''

But as soon as he said his name, the ground started to shake and the canaries became agitated, horrified

''An Uchiha! This can't mean anything good!'' the female canary said

''Uchihas are never good in this world'' the male agreed

''No, no, you don't understand'' Sasuke corrected ''I'm here to _help''_

''That's what they all say!'' the female shook her head in disapproval. Then her eyes opened wide in shock

''He's coming! Hurry and hide yourself!'' she instructed, and suddenly both the canaries started to move around frantically, hiding the furniture as fast as they could and then standing in the middle of the tunnel like ordinary birds ''hide!'' the female whispered before, suddenly, starting to look like a common canary again.

Sasuke thought all of that was a complete madness, but did as he was told, hiding himself behind the couch, where no one could see him.

Suddenly, a hole appeared on the roof above them and a sole snake's eye became visible, watching them. The birds acted as real canaries, doing absolutely nothing, and Sasuke stood still, not daring to move an inch.

The eye observed them for a little while and then started to retreat. But before he disappeared completely, he glanced at Sasuke's direction.

When he was gone, both birds sighed

''You can come out now, dear'' the female canary said

When Sasuke got up and took a better look at them, he noticed that both canaries wore a yellow shirt.

''Uh…'' he started, unsure ''does any of you know the way to the next nightmare?''

The canaries exchanged glances

''It depends on what you want with it''

Sasuke was getting impatient

''I want to put an end to it'' he said, simply

''In that case, follow the tunnel on the right, dear'' the female canary said ''it should take you there''

Then her eyes widened again and she screamed 'he's coming again!' before both canaries started to run around and hide the furniture.

 _What a crazy couple_ Sasuke thought, and this time he didn't wait for the eye to come again, he took the way leading to the tunnel on the right and followed it.

What felt stranger, Sasuke thought to himself, was that the tunnel above him started to turn blue. Then suddenly it wasn't a tunnel anymore and he was on a bridge, a blue sky above him, with some dark clouds approaching.

Sasuke felt his heart ache as he himself recalled that day.

He knew what that nightmare was about.

.

.

.

When his vision was clear enough for him to recognise everyone in the scene, Sasuke hurried to take young Sakura out of the way just as his version in the nightmare aimed a chidori at her. He grabbed his arm and pushed it away a second before it hit her, just as Kakashi had done in their reality.

''So you've made it this far'' the nightmare said

Sasuke, on his part, was shocked. So he knew what his purpose was and what had been going on?

''Yes'' he managed to say ''and I don't intend to be stopped here''

Sasuke had never in his life imagined to fight such a real version of himself. Or, at least, of his older version, before reason came to him. Before Sakura.

What he wasn't expecting , though, was that he would have to use that amount of chakra so soon.

His only advantages were his rinnegan and the fact that the nightmare's sharingan started to make him blind over time, as he overused it in their fight.

But Sasuke's heart wasn't all in that fight. Part of him was feeling terribly, terribly sorry for having ever caused - or tried to cause - Sakura any harm. The worst part of the nightmare was not the fight, but to deal with the feeling of guilt that took over him as soon as he saw that bridge and realised what that nightmare was about.

Sakura still had nightmares about that night. And she never told him.

She didn't want him to feel guilty about having ever done that to her. She was always smiling at him and pretending everything was alright when, deep inside, she still remembered that day, and it still haunted her.

Feeling a wave of determination fill him, Sasuke did the best he could to finish his foe. But for some reason there was no sign of the crystal.

It was only then that realisation struck him.

Killing the nightmare's Sasuke didn't solve the problem. The problem was that he was Sasuke, and he tried to hurt her. He was actually still trying to harm the young Sakura, who ran desperately from one side to the other trying to find a safe place.

Forcing his Sharingan upon his foe's, Sasuke entered his mind, bringing him into a genjutsu.

Sasuke would never hurt Sakura.

In the genjutsu, Sasuke showed the nightmare each and every moment he had spent together with Sakura. From the moment they first met, to their last night together, when he almost lost her.

Every mission they ever spent together

The first time she said she loved him

The moment he left Konoha again, but this time promising to return

When he kept his promise and came back

When she helped him rebuilt the Uchiha's District

Their first kiss

The first time she slept over

The first time she made him breakfast

When she was nominated chief of the hospital and he couldn't help but to feel extremely proud of her

When he first saw her saving a life

The time when she repeated she loved him and, finally, he felt the meaning of those words

Their first dance together

When he asked her to move in with him

When she accepted

When she made his house a home again

When he first admitted to himself he loved her

And when he told her that

Each moment filled with a wave of feelings so strong Sasuke felt dizzy

When the genjutsu was over, the entire form of the Sasuke from the nightmare had turned into a red crystal. The layer of hate and need of revenge gone, and the Sasuke from inside, the fragile young boy still learning how to love, revealed himself.

''Sakura'' he started, looking at the sky above them ''I'm sorry'' then he closed his eyes ''and thank you''

A bright light started to shine from within him before he shattered in one million pieces, only one bigger piece in the shape of heart remaining.

.

''What was that'' the young Sakura was flabbergasted, her jaw dropped in shock

Sasuke said nothing

But he was feeling everything.

''Two left. Let's go''

.

.

.

Sasuke wasn't at all pleased when they ended up in a large mansion and he heard male voices coming from the inside.

''Ohhhh I _love_ this place!'' the young Sakura cheered

Sasuke gave her a deadly look

''Let's make it quick''

.

Inside the house was worse than Sasuke had expected: there were in total 7 men, a complete reverse harem, and each of them were stunningly handsome. What was worse, they all wanted to stay close to Sakura at all times, tickling her and telling flirty jokes that were making Sasuke's patience decrease rapidly.

''We are looking for the next nightmare, care to tell us where to find it?'' he asked for the third time.

But none of the men paid him any attention.

''Sakura, let's go'' he finally said, but as soon as he touched her arm 7 pairs of eyes looked at him angrily, _so angrily_ Sasuke was taken aback and let her go.

''Don't mind him, boys'' she said ''he has no manners''

The men in the room started to laugh as if that had been the funniest joke in the world

''Aren't you the cutest thing, Sakura-chan? Please stay with us longer''

''Let me massage you, I'm sure you're tired!''

''Please accept this rose as a token of my love for you''

''I bought you these chocolates, Sakura-san, I hope they please you''

''I'm sorry I wasn't part of your past, can I make it up by being part of your future?''

''You're my one and only, Sakura, will you give me honor of making you the happiest woman in this world, by my side?''

''You have repainted my life with colors that were previously unknown to me, Sakura''

Sasuke was _pissed_

''Sakura, _let's go''_

Sakura sighed

''Boys, boys, easy now, there's enough of me for everybody'' she assured them ''now, will you be so kind as to show us the path to the next nightmare? The crystal pointed to this house''

''Why, of course! Why didn't you say so earlier?'' one of them said, making Sasuke use all of his self-control not to chidori him.

''This way, mademoiselle'' another said, leading them to a room full of mirrors ''please come back soon!'' then he closed the door and left only Sasuke and Sakura inside the room.

''Aaaaalright, what now?'' she asked him

Sasuke thought for a second, analysing each and every mirror carefully. There was only one that wasn't reflecting their image.

''Should be that one'' he said, touching it to find out that it was, in fact, a portal. He stepped inside and was teleported.

''Why always mirrors?'' Sakura grunted before following him.

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.

.

Sasuke found it weird when he opened his eyes and found himself in a place that resembled Konoha, yet still there was something different about it. He walked across the streets of the village feeling that everything was both familiar and strange at the same time.

''I'm positive Kizashi-san has never become Hokage'' he mentioned, looking at the Hokage Rock.

He knew where they were.

Sakura had told him once about that one time when Naruto and her had been teleported to an alternative reality in which everything was the opposite as it was in the real life.

''I was afraid we'd come to this nightmare eventually'' Sakura commented, drawing Sasuke's attention to her ''I fear you won't be able to pass this one, Sasuke''

''And why is that?'' he frowned

Sakura sighed

''Because what's wrong here is a feeling, the feeling of loneliness and abandonment Sakura felt when she realised she had no friends or family here. I doubt there's anything you can do to change those feelings''

Sasuke clenched his teeth. He had come this far, he wouldn't give up here.

Sakura needed him.

After a while walking through the new village, he decided to make his way to Sakura's house. Perhaps he would find a clue there.

To his surprise, he did.

In the living room, he found something very strange: her parents and even Sakura were there, but it was like it wasn't really them, but only an image representing them.

''A memory?'' he guessed, looking as the image fluctuated sometimes ''it looks like a happy memory, but it doesn't seem complete'' he voiced his thoughts.

Kizashi was sitting in the couch, his left hand looking like it was holding something, though there was nothing in his hand. Mebuki was coming from the kitchen, her arms ahead of her body like she was carrying something, but again, there was nothing in her arms. Sakura was sitting on the floor next to a Christmas Tree, looking happy as she opened something in front of her, something that wasn't there either. Sitting next to her, Naruto and Sai were looking at her with expectant eyes. The fire was put off behind them.

''Perhaps if I put things in the right places?''

Walking through the house, Sasuke found a tray with biscuits, a cup with hot chocolate and a wrapped present in different rooms, and he quickly brought them back to the living room, placing each item in the right place.

Nothing happened, though.

''Hmm…'' he was sure he was on the right path, but there was something missing ''it's normally cold during Christmas, perhaps if I light the fire?''

Just as he used the fire jutsu and the fire was lit, the whole room became brighter, laughter could be heard and for a moment the images moved, continuing what they were doing.

Outside, the sky became a little brighter and the quiet village started to make a little sound.

''Looks like I have to bring back Sakura's happy memories if I want the lonely feeling gone'' he concluded, glancing at the happy place once again before leaving the house to find where the next happy memory was.

.

Sasuke was right when he guesses the next place where a happy memory would be was Ichiraku's.

He arrived there to see all of Sakura's friends reunited, celebrating. It was as if a movie had been paused, because they were all in the middle of doing something.

Sasuke walked through the restaurant to find the missing pieces of the puzzle: Tsunade's sake, Naruto's ramen, Kakashi's Icha icha Paradise, Sai's painting brush and his canvas - for he was eternalizing the moment in a painting -, and Sakura's flower bouquet.

When the memory came to live and Sasuke saw the happiness it emanated. He almost felt envy that he wasn't there when it happened.

But what made it worse was that each and every memory of Sakura's he was retrieving in that nightmare happened without him. He wasn't in a single memory, he had missed most of her happy moments in her life because he was away seeking a stupid revenge. At least 6 new memories followed that one and none included him.

Sasuke felt for the first time extremely guilty for not having taken part of most of Sakura's happy moments in her life. For being away when she was the happiest.

The world started to shine brightly again, but something told Sasuke there was still one happy memory to retrieve. He searched the entire village for a place where Sakura could've experienced something that made her elated, but he couldn't find anything.

A faint hope started to grow inside him when he concluded the only place he hadn't visited yet in the village was the Uchiha's District.

Their home.

He wasted not another second and hurried there, entering the house to find out he was right: there it was, the last memory.

Sakura was in the living room with both arms in the air, and nothing else.

Sasuke knew what that memory was, though.

He lit the candles, closed the curtains and found the CD with her favorite song, placing it on the radio and pressing play. Then, he came closer to her and placed both her hands around his neck, wrapping his own around her waist.

The memory came to live as they danced together, slowly and intimately, looking straight into each others eyes. Sasuke might have imagined that, but he could swear the image's face became crystal clear to his eyes, and he could see Sakura's eyes shining just as they did when they first danced together in the real world, a bright smile on her lips.

The world around them started to turn into colorful butterflies as it dismantled, but Sasuke wasn't paying any attention to his surroundings: he only wanted to focus on the girl he loved, right in his arms again.

When finally all the world dismantled, Sakura started to disappear soon, but she managed to place a small kiss on his cheek before her body was gone.

Then the world around him started to become so bright he had to close his eyes not to get blinded by the light.

.

.

.

When finally he was able to see again, Sasuke noticed he was at a wedding. He looked around in confusion.

''Where's that damn crystal'' he asked himself, walking around. The guests looked at him strangely because of the clothes he was wearing - totally inappropriate for a wedding - but said nothing. After all, he still was Uchiha Sasuke.

''Teme!'' he heard a familiar voice call him ''I'm glad you came'' he said, patting his shoulder ''you know how much this means to me''

Although everyone's faces and forms were a little blurred in the dream world, it was impossible not to tell that he was Naruto

And that he was the only one wearing a white suit

Sasuke had a bad feeling about this

''Where's Sakura?'' he asked

Naruto laughed

''Teme, teme! Don't you know it brings bad luck to see the bride before the wedding? She should be here soon, walking down the aisle right to my aaaaaaaaarms!'' he sang

Sasuke didn't wait for him to say anything else. He ran to find Ino, the only person who would know where Sakura was.

''Ino'' he grabbed her arm and made her turn to him

''Heeey!'' she complained, looking at him angrily

Sakura's dream were very, very real, Sasuke thought to himself. Ino annoyed him just the same.

''Where's Sakura?''

Her expression turned stern

''Why do you ask?''

''It's none of your concern''

She gave him a 'then I won't help you' face and Sasuke inhaled deeply, trying to control his nerves

''I need to talk to her'' he said simply

Ino sighed and pulled him by the arm to a counter

''I don't know what you want with her, but she's happy, so don't screw up''

''For a dream, you're very annoying'' he mumbled

She said nothing

''Please?'' he said after a while

Ino considered him for a moment and then agreed

''Just don't ruin everything'' she begged him

Sasuke nodded

.

''Sakura?''

She was beautiful

Even though Sasuke couldn't see her face properly - because she wasn't the young Sakura, she was just an image from her brain - he could tell she looked like the most beautiful woman in the world in that wedding dress.

''Sasuke-kun? What are you doing here?''

On her finger, a ring shone in red.

 _The crystal_

''Sakura, I know it makes no sense, but I need your engagement ring'' he said, coming closer to her.

Sakura brought both her hands closer to her body, protecting them from his grasp, and took a step back

''Why? What is going on?''

''It's a long story, but you shouldn't be marrying Naruto'' he said ''this is a nightmare''

''No, Sasuke'' a voice called him. He turned around to see the Young Sakura ''this is no nightmare. This is just a dream. Because it came from the good memories you returned to Sakura, the crystal ended up here. But it's not a nightmare, it's just a dream. And a very good one''

''But if I don't get the ring'' Sasuke started ''will I be able to move on to the last nightmare?''

The young Sakura shook her head

''You need to break the crystal and end this dream''

Sakura retreated, protecting her ring

''End…?''

Sasuke was torn inside. He needed the ring, but could he end Sakura's happiness again?

''Sakura, this is an illusion, just a dream'' he tried to reason, more to convince himself than Sakura ''your life is out of here, back in the real Konoha, with me''

Sakura released a mocking laugh

''With you? You never cared about me, Sasuke-kun!'' Sasuke couldn't see clear, but he knew her eyes were full of tears ''how can you say something like this?''

Sasuke understood. This nightmare was a trap set by the Shadow. He knew Sasuke wouldn't dare harm Sakura.

''You probably don't remember this'' he told her ''but when we first danced together, you told me I danced like a wild duck''

Sakura stood silent

''When you first slept over, you made me watch all of your favorite movies with you and you got upset because I slept in the middle of the first one''

He stepped closer

''When we first kissed, it was because you had a hiccup and you told me to scare you so it would go away''

He took a lock of her hair and placed it behind her ear

''When I asked you to move in with me, you choked so hard on the milkshake we were sharing that it came all from your nose, it was gross'' he laughed lightly

Sakura giggled

''We've never been a perfect couple, Sakura'' he continued ''And I've hurt you so much… But you never gave up on me''

She tried to lower her head, but he lifted her chin and made her stare at him

''I need you trust me this time too''

Sakura hesitated for a second

''I'm happy like this, Sasuke'' she said ''like I've never been before''

He felt his heart ache

''But I trust you, so if you really need this ring, I'll give it to you. I've always put your needs before mine anyway'' she smiled lightly ''I guess this is what they call 'love' ''

He kissed her forehead when she slowly took the ring out of her finger and placed it in his hand

''Thank you, Sakura'' he said

Then closing his fist tight, he broke the ring.

The entire world around them started to dismantle, the fragments rising up in the sky until they disappeared. Sasuke gave Sakura one last look, her dress turning black before she started to disappear too.

Then he left.

.

.

.

''What happened?'' Sasuke asked when everything went dark. Sasuke was left in a dark, endless room, stepping on what seemed like water.

''Sasuke'' he turned around and saw the young Sakura on the other side of the room, her back to him.

''What's wrong? C'mon, let's move on to the next nightmare'' he urged her

Slowly, she started to turn at his direction

''I can't let you pass through this last nightmare''

When she turned completely to face him, her eyes were red and her hair started to dance like it had come to live.

''I was hoping you would fail eventually, but you're a stubborn little rat, aren't you? Why not let things happen as they should?'' she ran a hand through her own hair, trying to contain her anger ''But that's enough, I can no longer tolerate you nipping at my master's heels''

Sasuke's eyes widened as she rose in the sky and opened her arms wide, the entire world turning red and many figures from the past nightmares he'd fought against reappearing, all together, next to the young Sakura.

''Your little adventure in the Dream World ends here, Uchiha Sasuke''

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* * *

SUUUUUPPPPPP ?

I was super fast to post this chapter, wasn't I? I'm impressed! Hahahahah

I had the best time writing this, I hope you have as good a time reading it :3

Any predictions as to what will happen next? Let me know!

Nooooow, replying to my amazing guests:

\- monsuno power: YOU WERE RIGHT FROM THE START, BOYYYYYYYY! You're way too clever, it's impossible to surprise you xD I'm sorry it has been tiring for you lately ): Please don't give up on whatever you've been doing, I'm sure you can do it! Do your best and you'll already be a winner! And I think you two are connected because of your style of writing and also because you always post reviews together hahahahaha Buuut, it's just a theory! Hahahah I hope you can enjoy the end of the year, and in case I don't post a new chapter before Christmas: Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! I wish you lots of happiness and success in your life! Big hugs!

\- Bleach power: LET'S DAAAAAANCE! Hahahahahahah I love it too xD Aaaand you were right about young Sakura too! You two are so clever AAAAAA ! I hope you like this new chapter! I'm glad reading this story makes you happy! It makes me twice as happy when I read such sweet reviews as yours ! Thank YOU for always taking the time to write me a review and share with me your suspicions as to what will happen next! I love to read both yours and monsuno power's reviews, they make my days! In case I don't see you before the end of the year, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year ! Please continue to be such a sweet and kind person, I wish you all the best! Big hugs!

I hope to see you all soon, everyone! Big hugs!

.

Blackfan Diamond


	10. Sakura

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CHAPTER 9: SAKURA

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Suddenly, there was a loud shriek and the entire world around Sasuke changed: he was in a devastated land he knew too well.

 _The fourth ninja war_

Sasuke had no time to dodge when suddenly a figure with long dark hair appeared in front of him and he was punched in the stomach.

The impact threw Sasuke many meters away, and blood came out of his mouth.

''Madara'' he said, he should've guessed this would be the last nightmare the Shadow was controlling.

Each and every one of the nightmares started to attack Sasuke on their own and the Uchiha had to do his best to dodge each and every attack they aimed at him. It wasn't easy, though, to fight all of them at the same time. But Sasuke had a good advantage: he'd faced those nightmares before, he knew how to get rid of them.

Well, except for Madara, but he would need to do things step by step if he wanted to have any chance of winning. And he was going to win, of that he was sure. He had never been this motivated in a fight in his whole life: Sakura and everything she meant for him and he to her were at stake. He wouldn't lose.

Firstly, he took down Sasori

Secondly, himself as a mutated experiment from Orochimaru

Thirdly, all the hundreds of shadows coming from Sakura's first nightmare

Then, Orochimaru himself

Confidence took over him when he realized he was going to in and that was his mistake: when he tried to defeat both the Pains and Naruto at the same time, Sasuke found himself losing.

Naruto attacked him mercilessly, one attack after the other, and Sasuke wasn't in condition to dodge each and every attack. Madara took the opportunity to engage a taijutsu fight which Sasuke also lost, and Pain didn't waste any time before throwing stakes at his direction, that pierced through his whole body.

He felt his chakra depleting like a bar of life reaching zero, and his mind started to falter as if his brain wanted to leave that place and go back to the safety of the hospital's room.

 _I can't give up_

Sasuke shouted and used his Rinnegan to teleport himself to a safer place on the other side of the battlefield, where he would have a little time to gather his thoughts and think about what to do. When he looked back at where they had been fighting, though, shock took over him:

Sasori, Orochimaru, and all the shadows were coming in his direction, along with Madara and all the other nightmares. He had ended them for nothing.

He continued to fight them with everything he could until at last, he weakened Madara enough to show the weak spot on the eye that was wide opened on his forehead.

Sasuke used almost all he had left of chakra to dodge his opponents' attacks and aim for his eye, and when he finally managed to pierce Kusanagi through it, destroying the crystal - which made a big explosion throw his foes away from him - Sasuke sighed in relief.

''You little meddling boy'' Madara hissed, bringing one hand to the eye that had been destroyed, but he didn't die, as Sasuke had expected. Even though the crystal had been destroyed, he could still move and walk and talk and, most importantly, fight. And he did, engaging in another fight with Sasuke, who had used up almost all his chakra trying to destroy the crystal and was now only trying his best to avoid the most deadly attacks. He had no strengths to fight anymore.

It was only then that Sasuke realized Sakura was summoning the nightmares, so defeating them would be of no good to him, they would just come back. When he forced his vision to where the young Sakura stood, on top of a statue of Kaguya - most likely just waiting for the best opportunity to wake her - he noticed there was something red sparkling at the back of her neck.

 _The crystal_

It was the same spot Sasuke had hit when he left her the first time, to make her unconscious. That was her weak spot.

 _Sakura…_ he thought when another blow threw him many meters away and he felt some of his ribs break. He couldn't lose, c'mon, c'mon, _come on!_

 _I've always known in my heart, there was nothing I could have done for you. But I love you..!_

Sasuke's eyes widened when suddenly memories started to flood in his mind as he was attacked again.

 _No matter what's happened, I still care for you more than I can bear.._

Another hit, his body was covered in injuries, some that could be fatal had he not used some of the technics Sakura had taught him of concentrating chakra on his vital organs to protect them when receiving attacks.

 _If I could have taken all your pain... onto myself to comfort you, I would have..._

Sasuke was punched on his chin and thrown away again, spilling blood

 _If I still have a place in your heart, no matter how small it may be... then, please... I'm begging you, don't slip away any further..!_

He didn't deserve her

 _If we just all stayed together.. forever... Then I'm sure... someday... things would go back to how they used to be..._

Sasuke felt his vision blur and his chakra level reach almost complete depletion

 _I...I love you with all my heart!_

His eyes suddenly flung opened

What a selfish jerk he was

This was not the time to be thinking about him, and about if _he_ deserved Sakura or not. The fact was that she needed him, again.

 _Bring her back, Sasuke._

As if a wave of determination filled him, Sasuke suddenly got up. He looked straight at his foes with such a determined look that their confidence wavered for a moment, and when they attacked again, Sasuke only blocked their attacks and moved forward, to the evil Sakura's direction.

 _One thing about medic-nins is that our chakra is very important, Sasuke-kun, we can't waste it with unimportant matters_

He dodged their attacks as fast as he could and didn't take his eyes away from his real enemy

 _So save it for as long as you can, then when you find the best opportunity to attack your enemy…_

The evil Sakura's eyes widened as he appeared so close to her

 _Strike it with all you've got!_

His hand started to spark with chidori and Sasuke hit her on her neck, right on the crystal, destroying it.

Sakura yelled in pain

''This can't be!'' she screamed when her whole body started to shatter like glass

Then she broke in one million small pieces of glass on the floor, along with all the other nightmares.

.

.

.

Sasuke covered his eyes when suddenly everything turned white and when he opened them again he was back where he had first arrived at the dream world again.

Looking up at the sky, he saw the path to the memories was opened again, and there was a black fog coming from the one where everything had started, full of evil.

 _''Sasuke''_

He heard someone call him, but the voice was coming from everywhere around him, he couldn't tell exactly where it was coming from.

 _''You're almost there. When you reach this memory, you won't be able to retreat, so get everything ready for battle before coming. When you're ready, come and save me''_

Sasuke felt his heart race, then he nodded, turning to go to Ichiraku's one last time before his final battle.

.

.

.

When he felt his energies replenished, he stepped outside of the safe zone, looking up at the sky again and then raising one hand to the direction of the memory.

 _I'll save her_

Then, he spread the Susanoo's wings and flew in the direction of the memory.

It was dark and cold around it, and he felt his whole body shiver. It was now or never.

Then he touched the memory and felt his body being teleported again.

.

.

.

When he opened his eyes again, he was at that familiar and yet terrifying place again: the night when he left Sakura to go seek revenge. To seek the darkness.

He heard steps coming from behind him and he turned around slowly, already expecting to see his enemy. Himself, the first and last nightmare.

The shadow was walking slowly in his direction, coming from a darker place under some trees to the light.

''I really had hoped you wouldn't be me, you know'' Sasuke admitted ''It hurts to see this night was so traumatizing to Sakura that it became such a strong bad memory capable of causing so much harm''

The shadow stopped where there was light, but its figure was still impossible to be distinguished, it was all a black fog. Then, slowly, the fog started to be dissipated and a figure started to appear.

''You think too much of yourself, Uchiha'' a female voice said, way too familiar ''But no, you're not the last nightmare''

Sasuke's eyes widened

''I am''

Pink hair appeared on her head and in front of Sasuke stood her, exactly like in the night he left her, the exact same age, clothes, face, everything.

''Sakura!''

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* * *

Heeeeyy!

Okay, I'M SORRY IT'S SUCH A SHORT CHAPTER! But I'm traveling tomorrow and I wanted to leave you guys with a chapter before going because I don't know if I'll be able to post anything from there ;-;

I was so scared before posting this chapter cause we're reaching the end of the story and I'm like WHAT AM I GOING TO WRITE, IDK AND I DEF DON'T WANT TO DISAPPOINT MY READERS ;-;

You guys are the best, I want to write the best story for you!

Now, replying to my most fabulous guest readerss!

\- Guest: Thank yooouuu! I'm really glad you like it! Thank you for taking the time to write me a review, you're so sweet! I hope you like this chapter too!

\- Bleach power: AW I WANT A CAKE! Hahahahahah YES I WAS READING ALICE HAHAHAH Actually that was where I got the idea for this story hehehehe Really, thank you so much for reviewing every time! I love to hear from you and your reviews always make me really happy! Especially because you're super smart and always guesses everything before I write them haahhaha BET YOU DIDN'T SEE THIS ONE COMING THOUGH, DID YOU? Hahahahahahah I hope to hear from you soon! Big hugssss!

\- monsuno power: HAhahaha the wedding scene was tough to write, I have to admit! But I'm glad you like ittttt! And THE DANCE MADE ME CRY AAAAA! Hahahahah And OMG how come you guesses Madara was the last one? I GIVE UP, YOU AND BLEACH POWER ARE TOO SMART! Hahahahaha! What did you think of this chapter? What do you think will happen next? And why is Sakura from the day he left her the evil one behind all of this, any guesses? I hope you like this chapter and I hope to hear from you soon! Big hugs!

Thank you all for reading, I'll try to post the next chapter soon :3 Perhaps there will be only 1 or 2 more chapters and then Knightmares will be over ),: but I still need to work on these chapters so NO CRYING, I'll be back! Haahaha

Big hugs, everyone!

.

Blackfan Diamond


	11. Knight

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CHAPTER 10: KNIGHT

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''Surprised?'' she asked

''Very'' Sasuke admitted, still shocked by the revelation ''but… how? Why?''

''Think, Sasuke, for once in your life'' she mocked ''what was the beginning of all of Sakura's doom?''

Sasuke swallowed hard

''Well, I thought it was me, honestly''

Sakura nodded

''But Sakura never blamed you'' she bit her lower lip and clenched her fists in anger ''even when you abandoned her like this, she never blamed you. She blamed _herself_. For not being capable of making you stay''

Sasuke's eyes widened

''This didn't become a nightmare just because you left. It became a nightmare mostly because Sakura felt like she wasn't good enough to make you stay''

Sakura closed her eyes and ran a hand through her short hair

''And every single time she relived this memory or had a nightmare about it, she had a feeling of guilt, of uselessness, of not being good enough. Feelings are strong, Sasuke, and I was born out of them. I started to live this dream instead of the first Sakura you met here before, that useless little thing'' she hissed ''and the more Sakura dreamed about that the surer I was about one thing: everything in Sakura's life has always been about you. About Uchiha Sasuke, about trying to make you notice us, care for us, love us'' she spat the words ''our life was a waste because of you. Can you imagine how Sakura would've been had you never existed in her life? How great a shinobi she would have been? Or how much time wasted chasing you she could've spent training or investing on people who actually cared about her?''

Sasuke didn't say a word

''You are like a parasite'' she pointed a finger at him, her teeth gritted ''and you sucked most of Sakura's lifetime'' she then took a deep breath and tried to recompose herself ''I admit some of it was Sakura's own fault, for putting so much expectation on a jerk like you'' she said ''but that doesn't change the fact that most of Sakura's suffering happened because of _you_!'' she was angry for a second, but then she inhaled deeply and proceeded ''so I thought to myself: why not erase the problem? Nip the evil in the bud. If I managed to get access to Sakura's memories, I would be able to erase you from each and every memory you ever took part in, and that way Sakura would become a much stronger and more capable person''

''You speak of making Sakura stronger, but you are the one who was creating nightmares in her mind that frightened her'' Sasuke reasoned

Sakura brought a hand to her forehead and laughed

''Means to an end, my dear'' she said ''I was born from a nightmare after all, I feed on them. And I needed to grow if I wanted to be able to tear the chains that kept me in this one memory apart and reach the Dream World, where I would have access to every other memory. I never thanked you for making my way out of here much easier, did I?'' she smiled maliciously at him.

Sasuke crisped his lips

''But my plan didn't involve hurting Sakura, of course not! After all, I'm her'' she continued ''but after I managed to escape this place and change the memories, I would be able to create the Sakura she has always deserved to be. A Sakura that had never been poisoned by your venom'' she looked at him with disgust ''and then, I would be able to take over the Dream World and take that useless Sakura's place in living the dreams and taking care of the memories. Whoever has access to the Dream World has access to every memory of a person's. And, as you probably found out by now, memories are what make someone who they are, so _I_ would be in control of Sakura forever!'' she started to laugh out loud ''and no one would ever use us or treat us like you did!''

''Where's the young Sakura? What did you do to her?''

Sakura looked back at him and smirked

'' _Young Sakura?_ Have you ever wondered why she's so young? Isn't Sakura 21?''

Sasuke halted. He had asked that himself many times.

Sakura sat on the bench and looked at him in expectation.

''Well?''

''I have no idea''

She smirked again

''Because inside of her mind, inner Sakura is a child. On the outside, she might play tough, but on the inside she's a frightened little girl who has many fears and can't solve her problems by herself because she never grew up. Because you made her like this. Because of you, Sakura has never stood out or tried her best to become someone stronger, all she could do was chase you and be stepped on by you, over and over''

Sasuke was taken aback. He had always known he had hurt Sakura in many ways, but never had he guessed his attitudes had had such an impact in her life

Sakura lowered her hand, one hand covering one eye, a few fingers separated so Sasuke could still see it behind the hair strands.

''You see, Sasuke, I'm not evil'' she started ''I just want Sakura to have the life she has always deserved, without you, without her biggest _weakness_ '' Sakura grasped her hair with both her hands and her body started to shake in frustration ''but you had to ruin everything, didn't you? You couldn't just sit down like a good boy and wait for everything to happen like it should, could you?'' she started to laugh madly ''but it's okay, there's nothing you can do now. While I told you about my plan, the last of _young Sakura's_ energy was being drained from her, and it will be mine soon enough, then I'll finally be able to take control over the Dream World and change Sakura forever!''

Sasuke wanted to do something, say something. But he couldn't. He wondered if what she was doing was indeed that bad. Erasing him from Sakura's memories would do her good? Then why not let it happen? Could he be selfish enough to say 'no, I want to be part of her life no matter how much harm my presence has caused her'? If it was for her own good, why not let it happen?

He felt defeated.

 _''Sakura, who did this to you?''_

He opened his eyes widely

 _''Sakura, tell me, who injured you?!''_

Sasuke's eyes started to be filled with tears and he lowered his head

 _''I am an avenger. - I can't forgive_ _ **even you**_ _..._ _if you take that away from me_ …''

Sasuke had always been terrible at expressing his feelings, but there was one thing he knew for sure

 _''Hey...Naruto. You have to save Sakura no matter what…''_

He loved her too

 _"Take care of Sakura..."_

He had always loved her, even though he never knew how to express it

 _''Sakura... Thank you... for everything...''_

And he wasn't going to lose her because some shadow said so. He would make up for every harm he'd ever caused her and he would make sure she lived happily ever after with him, forever.

He had given her up once.

He would never, _ever_ , do that again.

''You're wrong'' he said

Sakura turned to him slowly

''What…?''

''I was never Sakura's weakness'' he corrected her ''I'm her strength''

Sasuke took the crystals he had gathered through all his journey in the Dream World and put them all together in his hand.

''These crystals are part of you, aren't they?''

Sakura frowned and hesitantly nodded

''Then instead of filling them with hate and fears, I'll fill them with light''

Sakura's eyes widened in shock as Sasuke brought the crystals closer to his chest and suddenly they merged together and turned into the shape of a heart, going from red to white as Sasuke filled it with all the feelings he felt for his, _his_ , Sakura.

''What are you doing?'' Sakura asked, alarmed, then when she tried to run away from him, he ran into her direction and placed the heart made of crystal where her heart should've been.

Sakura gasped

For the first time in her whole existence, she didn't feel guilty for not having prevented Sasuke from leaving that day. She felt like that was going to make her strong, so she would be good enough to bring him back. She felt like that was the start of something big. Of the story of Sasuke and Sakura.

She turned slowly to him and Sasuke hugged her tight, kissing her forehead.

''I'm sorry for everything I've caused you, Sakura'' he whispered ''I swear I'll be the best man for you from now on, and that I'll do my best never to hurt you again''

Sakura's eyes were filled with tears when she closed them for the last time, still hugging Sasuke back. Then she broke in thousands of pieces, but the heart itself remained on the floor.

Before Sasuke could lower himself to grab it, though, it got bigger and bigger until finally it cracked and broke, and the young Sakura emerged from it.

''Sasuke!'' she exclaimed, running to his arms

''You've been here all along!'' he exclaimed back

She was no longer a young girl, she looked exactly like the Sakura he knew and loved from his world.

''You've grown up'' he mentioned, taking a step back to take a better look at her.

She smiled and nodded

''You helped me overcome my fears. I'm no longer a fearsome girl on the inside''

Sasuke smiled and hugged her tight

''Everything will be alright now'' she said

Yes, yes it would.

.

.

.

''Are you sure it's safe for me to come back to the real world?'' he asked her

''I'm not sure'' she smiled ''but there's nothing else for you to do here. I'll have to clean up all the mess that evil Sakura made, and that might take a while. You should leave now, Sakura's waking up soon, I can feel it'' she looked around, the world was starting to become blurred again ''I'm not worried. I know that for whatever problem we might face from now one we've got a knight in shining armor to save us'' she stuck her tongue out.

Sasuke smiled, relieved, and the world started to disappear around them as Sakura started to wake up.

Before they disappeared, though, he came closer to her and kissed her cheek lovingly.

''And, with a kiss, the princess woke up''

.

.

.

Sasuke woke up to find Naruto, Kakashi and Tsunade in the room looking at him with expectation.

''Did everything go well?'' Tsunade asked before he even had time to reorient himself ''her electroencephalogram went crazy and we decided to stop the medication that was putting her into sleep just to make sure everything was alright'' she explained

Sasuke got up from the bed and looked at Sakura

''Everything should be fine now'' he smiled

After a short while, Sakura woke up. At first, she looked around in confusion, not sure of what was going on.

''Sakura-chan!'' Naruto shouted, jumping on the bed and hugging his friend tightly

''Naruto!'' Tsunade reprimanded, pulling him by the shirt ''she's not well yet, control yourself''

Naruto pouted, but agreed

''Tsunade-sama, Kakashi-sensei, Naruto'' she greeted them with one of her best smiles, then her head turned to Sasuke and she frowned.

''Sakura'' he called her

The way she was frowning at him told Sasuke something wasn't right

''Who are you?''

.

.

.

Sasuke felt his heart stop inside his chest

''Sakura, it's me'' he said

Sakura wasn't trying to avoid him, though, she looked like she genuinely didn't have the slightest idea who he was.

''Perhaps we should leave them alone for a while'' Kakashi sensed the tension and quickly left the room, being followed by Tsunade and a reluctant Naruto, who wanted to stay in the room but was dragged outside by the Hokage.

When the door closed, Sasuke sat on the bed next to Sakura. He tried to remain calm.

''Are you sure you don't remember me?''

Sakura lowered her head

''I… I feel like there are some blank spaces in my memories, like there's something missing… But I can't tell what is, I'm so confused…''

He was silent for a moment, and before Sakura said something random to break the silence, he said:

''Would you let me share my memories with you?''

She widened her eyes, then hesitantly nodded in agreement.

Sasuke used his sharingan to do just like he had done when he fought himself on the bridge: he filled each gap in Sakura's memories, each blank space that had once been memories with him, until her memories were finally fully restored. Sakura might have thought those could be implanted memories he wanted her to have, but Naruto, Kakashi and Tsunade seemed to trust this handsome stranger, and somehow she felt like she could trust him too.

Suddenly, she started to remember things

The first time she ever saw him

 _''That's Sasuke-kun, isn't he handsome?''_

 _''Who, the one looking this way?''_

 _''Just hide!''_

When they were chosen to be on Team 7

 _I'm Haruno Sakura. What I like… I mean, who I like is…_

All their missions together

 _''...Sakura, you're heavy.''_

How at first his look was cold towards everyone

 _''My name is Sasuke Uchiha. I hate a lot of things, and I don't particularly like anything.''_

How with time he started to treat her in a warmer way

Only her

 _''Here, it's cold, it would be troublesome if you got sick''_

 _She blushed_

All the sad memories they shared together, but that made them grow to be who they were today

 _''You're annoying...''_

The first time he said he liked her back - or attempted to

 _''I think I like you more than tomatoes sometimes''_

How he had trouble at first saying he loved her

 _''I… uh… Sakura…''_

 _''I LOVE YOU TOO, SASUKE-KUN!''_

 _''Humph''_

When they first kissed

 _''Sakura, are you okay? Sakura? Oh my God, someone help her, I think she passed out!''_

When they started to date and everyone in town found them to be the most incompatible couple in town

 _He's too cold for you, Sakura-san! You should find someone more lively… like Naruto-san!_

How they proved they were indeed very compatible, in all ways possible

 _''You know, Sakura, I think you're good for Sasuke. You make sure he stays in line''_

When he asked her if she would move in with him

 _''I think this house could use a feminine touch''_

 _''What do you mean?''_

 _''You know what I mean''_

 _She smiled_

Breakfast in bed

 _''Don't get used to it, Sakura, it's just because it's your birthday''_

Watching movies until late at night and talking nonsense

 _''This movie is nonsense''_

 _''It's a romance!''_

 _''Exactly''_

 _''You don't like romances?''_

 _''Only ours''_

When she started to have nightmares again

And how he was always there with her to calm her down and tell her everything would be okay

 _''Sakura, hey, wake up, it's just a nightmare, you're okay, I'm right here with you''_

Every single detail

Immortalized in memories

This time, there to stay.

Sasuke's right eye turned back into being onyx and he looked deeply into Sakura's green jades.

She remembered him

''Sasuke-kun!'' she exclaimed, throwing her arms around his neck

Sasuke wrapped his around her waist, digging his face on her neck. He had missed her so much

''Sasuke-kun, you won't believe what I dreamed about!'' she said, putting some distance between them to look at him in the eyes ''it was the weirdest dream of all, you were there and you were fighting my nightmares, but I wasn't myself, I was someone else'' she started to shake her arms as she explained, trying to convey meaning to the things she was babbling about, telling him about the wonderful and weird dream she'd had.

Sasuke smiled at her

''Sounds like a very interesting dream, I'd love to hear everything about it''

Sakura returned his smile and started to explain everything in details. Sasuke, on his side, could only pay attention to her bubbly expression and funny ways as she told him all about it. The young Sakura had been right: everything would be alright now.

.

.

.

''You mean that wasn't a dream?!'' she uttered aloud, looking at them in shock.

Sakura, Sasuke, Naruto and Kakashi were at Ichiraku's celebrating Sakura leaving the hospital. Sasuke felt a wave of comfort as soon as he entered the restaurant and he decided that there were some things from the Dream World he would carry with him forever. He wondered if this would turn out to become a good memory in Sakura's mind, and he decided he would do his best to take part in each and every happy memory of Sakura's from now on.

''Of course not, Sakura-chan! You wouldn't believe how awkwardly you were behaving when you first woke up, I was so scared you would be like that forever'' Naruto then took conscious of his words and added ''But I'd still love you the same, Sakura-chan! No matter how evil you turned!''

Sakura threw her head back and laughed

''You're the best, Naruto!''

''Well, as much as I hate to say this, I'm not as good as your hero here'' Naruto poked Sasuke on the arm ''He's your savior''

Sakura giggled and gave Sasuke a small kiss on the cheek

''My knight in shining armor!'' she said, bubbly

Sasuke smiled back at her and touched their noses romantically

''Forever''

.

.

.

''Are you ready to sleep?'' he asked her for the third time. This time, she looked at him, smiled, and then put away the book she was reading

''Fine, fine, if you insist!'' she said ''I can finish my book tomorrow''

She snuggled closer to him and he brought her closer to his body, inhaling the sweet aroma that came from her.

''Goodnight, Sakura''

''Goodnight, Sasuke-kun!''

After a while that she didn't fall asleep, though, Sasuke finally decided to ask:

''What's troubling you? Are you having trouble falling asleep?''

''Sasuke-kun'' she started ''I can't recall you ever saying you love me. I would hate to have forgotten something like this, can you say it again?''

Sasuke smiled and closed his eyes, kissing her forehead

''I love you, Sakura''

She giggled

''Good! I love you too, Sasuke-kun''

''Mhm''

''A lot''

''Hm''

''Like, a whole lot''

''I know, now sleep''

''I just want you to be sure! You're sure about that, right? I love you so so so so so muchhhhh!''

''I love you very much too, Sakura, now sleep''

''Alright''

''Goodnight''

''Goodnight, Sasuke-kun!''

That night, Sakura had only the best of dreams. Sometimes, a bad dream or two tried to make their way through her mind and make her scared, but whenever that happened, a handsome man with dark hair would show up and make everything alright. No nightmares would ever harm her again. Sakura smiled in her sleep as the she from her dreams looked straight at her and winked.

.

.

.

 **THE END**

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* * *

Thank you all for reading Knightmares! I had SO MUCH FUN writing this, I hope you had fun reading it!

I wrote this entire chapter yesterday, after posting the last one, so excited I was to write it! Hahahahaha I can't believe I've finally finished my first long-fic wow! It's all thanks to you guys, who showed me your support by writing me reviews, following and favoriting my fic! Thank you SO MUCH! You're the best!

AND THERE'S A BONUS:

There will most likely be an Epilogue, I'm 99% sure of that xD So stay tuned! Hahahahah

Thank you so much for all your support!

And now, replying to my amazing guests!

\- monsuno power: C'mon how did you guess it was because she blamed herself? HAhahahha you're too smart! Hahahahaha Did you like this last chapter? I hope you did! I'll miss you! I'll try to post the epilogue before the end of the year, but in any case, Merry Christmas! Thank you for being such a great reader and for motivating me to keep writing! Big hugsssss!

\- Bleach power: You and monsuno power are too smart, I can't deal with you two! Hahahaha I'm glad you liked the last chapter, I hope you like this one too! It was the last one, but there will be an epilogue too, so I hope to see you again! Thanks for being this awesome reader you are and for reviewing! It gave me the motivation to keep writing! Merry Christmas! I hope to see you around! Big hugsssss!

That's it, everyone! Thank you all very much for your support and I hope to see you again on the epilogue if/when I decide to write it hahaha

Big hugssss!

.

Blackfan Diamond


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